tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-512706607787028432017-12-13T11:27:10.216-08:00IM Local SEO BlogVictor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.comBlogger1941125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-26044798560315307102017-12-13T11:27:00.001-08:002017-12-13T11:27:10.252-08:00Moz the Monster: Anatomy of An (Averted) Brand Crisis<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/22897/&quot;">Dr-Pete</a></p><p>On the morning of Friday, November 10, we woke up to the news that John Lewis had launched an ad campaign <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/10/john-lewis-christmas-ad-2017-meet-moz-the-monster-under-the-bed" target="_blank">called "Moz the Monster</a>". If you're from the UK, John Lewis needs no introduction, but for our American audience, they're a high-end retail chain that's gained a reputation for a decade of amazing Christmas ads.</p><p style="text-align: center"><iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sa5dzQhvbiI?rel=0" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p>It's estimated that John Lewis spent upwards of £7m on this campaign (roughly $9.4M). It quickly became clear that they had organized a multi-channel effort, including a #mozthemonster Twitter campaign.</p><p>From a consumer perspective, Moz was just a lovable blue monster. From the perspective of a company that has spent years building a brand, John Lewis was potentially going to rewrite what "Moz" meant to the broader world. From a search perspective, we were facing a rare possibility of competing for our own brand on Google results if this campaign went viral (and John Lewis has a solid history of viral campaigns).<br /></p><h2>Step #1: Don't panic</h2><p>At the speed of social media, it can be hard to stop and take a breath, but you have to remember that that speed cuts both ways. If you're too quick to respond and make a mistake, that mistake travels at the same speed and can turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy, creating exactly the disaster you feared.</p><p>The first step is to get multiple perspectives quickly. I took to Slack in the morning (I'm two hours ahead of the Seattle team) to find out who was awake. Two of our UK team (Jo and Eli) were quick to respond, which had the added benefit of getting us the local perspective.</p><p>Collectively, we decided that, in the spirit of our TAGFEE philosophy, a friendly monster deserved a friendly response. Even if we chose to look at it purely from a pragmatic, tactical standpoint, John Lewis wasn't a competitor, and going in metaphorical guns-blazing against a furry blue monster and the little boy he befriended could've been step one toward a reputation nightmare.</p><h2>Step #2: Respond (carefully)</h2><p>In some cases, you may choose not to respond, but in this case we felt that friendly engagement was our best approach. Since the Seattle team was finishing their first cup of coffee, I decided to test the waters with a tweet from my personal account:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-1-52112.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>I've got a smaller audience than the main Moz account, and a personal tweet as the west coast was getting in gear was less exposure. The initial response was positive, and we even got a little bit of feedback, such as suggestions to monitor UK Google SERPs (see "Step #3").</p><p>Our community team (thanks, Tyler!) quickly followed up with an official tweet:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-2-67547.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>While we didn't get direct engagement from John Lewis, the general community response was positive. Roger Mozbot and Moz the Monster could live in peace, at least for now.</p><h2>Step #3: Measure</h2><p>There was a longer-term fear – would engagement with the Moz the Monster campaign alter Google SERPs for Moz-related keywords? Google has become an incredibly dynamic engine, and the meaning of any given phrase can rewrite itself based on how searchers engage with that phrase. I decided to track "moz" itself across both the US and UK.</p><p>In that first day of the official campaign launch, searches for "moz" were already showing news ("Top Stories") results in the US and UK, with the text-only version in the US:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-3-19699.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>...and the richer Top Stories carousel in the UK:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-4-117106.jpg" style="border: 0" /></p><p>The Guardian article that announced the campaign launch was also ranking organically, near the bottom of page one. So, even on day one, we were seeing some brand encroachment and knew we had to keep track of the situation on a daily basis.</p><p>Just two days later (November 12), Moz the Monster had captured four page-one organic results for "moz" in the UK (at the bottom of the page):</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-5-44450.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>While it still wasn't time to panic, John Lewis' campaign was clearly having an impact on Google SERPs.</p><h2>Step #4: Surprises</h2><p>On November 13, it looked like the SERPs might be returning to normal. The Moz Blog had regained the Top Stories block in both US and UK results:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-9-89958.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>We weren't in the clear yet, though. A couple of days later, a plagiarism scandal broke, and it was dominating the UK news for "moz" by November 18:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster10-9698.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>This story also migrated into organic SERPs after The Guardian published an op-ed piece. Fortunately for John Lewis, the follow-up story didn't last very long. It's an important reminder, though, that you can't take your eyes off of the ball just because it seems to be rolling in the right direction.</p><h2>Step #5: Results</h2><p>It's one thing to see changes in the SERPs, but how was all of this impacting search trends and our actual traffic? Here's the data from Google Trends for a 4-week period around the Moz the Monster launch (2 weeks on either side):</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-6-12570.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>The top graph is US trends data, and the bottom graph is UK. The large spike in the middle of the UK graph is November 10, where you can see that interest in the search "moz" increased dramatically. However, this spike fell off fairly quickly and US interest was relatively unaffected.</p><p>Let's look at the same time period for Google Search Console impression and click data. First, the US data (isolated to just the keyword "moz"):</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-7-10552.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>There was almost no change in impressions or clicks in the US market. Now, the UK data:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster-8-9627.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>Here, the launch spike in impressions is very clear, and closely mirrors the Google Trends data. However, clicks to Moz.com were, like the US market, unaffected. Hindsight is 20/20, and we were trying to make decisions on the fly, but the short-term shift in Google SERPs had very little impact on clicks to our site. People looking for Moz the Monster and people looking for Moz the search marketing tool are, not shockingly, two very different groups.</p><p>Ultimately, the impact of this campaign was short-lived, but it is interesting to see how quickly a SERP can rewrite itself based on the changing world, especially with an injection of ad dollars. At one point (in UK results), Moz the Monster had replaced Moz.com in over half (5 of 8) page-one organic spots and Top Stories – an impressive and somewhat alarming feat.</p><p>By December 2, Moz the Monster had completely disappeared from US and UK SERPs for the phrase "moz". New, short-term signals can rewrite search results, but when those signals fade, results often return to normal. So, remember not to panic and track real, bottom-line results.</p><h2>Your crisis plan</h2><p>So, how can we generalize this to other brand crises? What happens when someone else's campaign treads on your brand's hard-fought territory? Let's restate our 5-step process:</p><h3>(1) Remember not to panic</h3><p>The very word "crisis" almost demands panic, but remember that you can make any problem worse. I realize that's not very comforting, but unless your office is actually on fire, there's time to stop and assess the situation. Get multiple perspectives and make sure you're not overreacting.</p><h3>(2) Be cautiously proactive</h3><p>Unless there's a very good reason not to (such as a legal reason), it's almost always best to be proactive and respond to the situation on your own terms. At least acknowledge the situation, preferably with a touch of humor. These brand intrusions are, by their nature, high profile, and if you pretend it's not happening, you'll just look clueless.</p><h3>(3) Track the impact</h3><p>As soon as possible, start collecting data. These situations move quickly, and search rankings can change overnight in 2017. Find out what impact the event is really having as quickly as possible, even if you have to track some of it by hand. Don't wait for the perfect metrics or tracking tools.</p><h3>(4) Don't get complacent</h3><p>Search results are volatile and social media is fickle – don't assume that a lull or short-term change means you can stop and rest. Keep tracking, at least for a few days and preferably for a couple of weeks (depending on the severity of the crisis).</p><h3>(5) Measure bottom-line results</h3><p>As the days go by, you'll be able to more clearly see the impact. Track as deeply as you can – long-term rankings, traffic, even sales/conversions where necessary. This is the data that tells you if the short-term impact in (3) is really doing damage or is just superficial.</p><h2>The real John Lewis</h2><p>Finally, I'd like to give a shout-out to someone who has felt a much longer-term impact of John Lewis' succesful holiday campaigns. Twitter user and computer science teacher <a href="https://twitter.com/johnlewis" target="_blank">@johnlewis</a> has weathered his own brand crisis year after year with grace and humor:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/moz-the-monster11-49440.png" style="border: 0" /></p><p>So, a hat-tip to John Lewis, and, on behalf of Moz, a very happy holidays to Moz the Monster!</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/B6kWju7Va9I" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/moz-the-monster-anatomy-of-a-brand-crisis<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-1382869880863802142017-12-12T13:32:00.001-08:002017-12-12T13:32:34.388-08:00Keyword Research Beats Nate Silver’s 2016 Presidential Election Prediction<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/514135/&quot;">BritneyMuller</a></p><p>100% of statisticians would say this is a terrible method for predicting elections. However, in the case of 2016’s presidential election, analyzing the geographic search volume of a few telling keywords “predicted” the outcome more accurately than Nate Silver himself.</p><p>The 2016 US Presidential Election was a nail-biter, and many of us followed along with the famed statistician’s predictions in real time on <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.com/" target="_blank">FiveThirtyEight.com</a>. Silver’s predictions, though more accurate than many, were still disrupted by the election results.</p><p>In an effort to better understand our country (and current political chaos), I dove into keyword research state-by-state searching for insights. Keywords can be powerful indicators of intent, thought, and behavior. What keyword searches might indicate a personal political opinion? Might there be a common denominator search among people with the same political beliefs?</p><p>It’s generally agreed that <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2014/10/21/political-polarization-media-habits/pj_14-10-21_mediapolarization-08/" target="_blank">Fox News leans to the right and CNN leans to the left</a>. And if we’ve learned anything this past year, it’s that the news you consume can have a strong impact on what you believe, in addition to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" target="_blank">confirmation bias</a> already present in seeking out particular sources of information.</p><p>My crazy idea: What if Republican states showed more “fox news” searches than “cnn”? What if those searches revealed a bias and an intent that exit polling seemed to obscure?</p><p>The limitations to this research were pretty obvious. Watching Fox News or CNN doesn’t necessarily correlate with voter behavior, but could it be a better indicator than the polls? My research says yes. I researched other media outlets as well, but the top two ideologically opposed news sources — in any of the 50 states — were consistently Fox News and CNN.</p><p>Using Google Keyword Planner (connected to a high-paying Adwords account to view the most accurate/non-bucketed data), I evaluated each state's search volume for “fox news” and “cnn.”</p><p>Eight states showed the exact same search volumes for both. Excluding those from my initial test, my results accurately predicted 42/42 of the 2016 presidential state outcomes including North Carolina and Wisconsin (which Silver mis-predicted). Interestingly, "cnn" even mirrored Hillary Clinton, similarly winning the popular vote (25,633,333 vs. 23,675,000 average monthly search volume for the United States).</p><p>In contrast, Nate Silver accurately predicted 45/50 states using a <a href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/a-users-guide-to-fivethirtyeights-2016-general-election-forecast/" target="_blank">statistical methodology based on polling results</a>.</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dc9ffaa3.17373204.png" alt="" /></a></p><p class="full-width caption">Click for a larger image</p><p>This gets even more interesting:</p><p>The eight states showing the same average monthly search volume for both “cnn” and “fox news” are Arizona, Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas.</p><p>However, I was able to dive deeper via GrepWords API (a keyword research tool that actually powers <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'Keyword Research Beats Nate Silver’s 2016 Presidential Election Prediction', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer's</a> data), to discover that Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Ohio each have slightly different “cnn” vs “fox news” search averages over the previous 12-month period. Those new search volume averages are:</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover"><thead><tr><th><br /></th><th><p>“fox news” avg monthly search volume</p></th><th><p>“cnn” avg monthly search volume</p></th><th><p>KWR Prediction</p></th><th><p>2016 Vote</p></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><p>Arizona</p></td><td><p>566333</p></td><td><p>518583</p></td><td><p>Trump</p></td><td><p>Trump</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Nevada</p></td><td><p>213833</p></td><td><p>214583</p></td><td><p>Hillary</p></td><td><p>Hillary</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>New Mexico</p></td><td><p>138833</p></td><td><p>142916</p></td><td><p>Hillary</p></td><td><p>Hillary</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Ohio</p></td><td><p>845833</p></td><td><p>781083</p></td><td><p>Trump</p></td><td><p>Trump</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Pennsylvania</p></td><td><p>1030500</p></td><td><p>1063583</p></td><td><p>Hillary</p></td><td><p>Trump</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Four out of five isn’t bad! This brought my new prediction up to 46/47.</p><p>Silver and I each got Pennsylvania wrong. The GrepWords API shows the average monthly search volume for “cnn” was ~33,083 searches higher than “fox news” (to put that in perspective, that’s ~0.26% of the state’s population). This tight-knit keyword research theory is perfectly reflected in Trump’s 48.2% win against Clinton’s 47.5%.</p><p>Nate Silver and I have very different day jobs, and he wouldn’t make many of these hasty generalizations. Any prediction method can be right a couple times. However, it got me thinking about the power of keyword research: how it can reveal searcher intent, predict behavior, and sometimes even defy the logic of things like statistics.</p><p>It’s also easy to predict the past. What happens when we apply this model to today's Senate race?</p><h2>Can we apply this theory to Alabama’s special election in the US Senate?</h2><p>After completing the above research on a whim, I realized that we’re on the cusp of yet another hotly contested, extremely close election: the upcoming Alabama senate race, between controversy-laden Republican Roy Moore and Democratic challenger Doug Jones, fighting for a Senate seat that hasn’t been held by a Democrat since 1992.</p><p>I researched each Alabama county — 67 in total — for good measure. There are obviously <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/12/11/why-polls-showing-a-20-point-spread-in-alabama-arent-actually-wrong/" target="_blank">a ton of variables</a> at play. However, 52 out of the 67 counties (77.6%) 2016 presidential county votes are correctly “predicted” by my theory.</p><p>Even when giving the Democratic nominee more weight to the very low search volume counties (19 counties showed a search volume difference of less than 500), my numbers lean pretty far to the right (48/67 Republican counties):</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/keyword-research-electoral-prediction/5a3034dd9d10a2.66116469.png" /></p><p>It should be noted that my theory incorrectly guessed two of the five largest Alabama counties, Montgomery and Jefferson, which both voted Democrat in 2016.</p><p>Greene and Macon Counties should both vote Democrat; their very slight “cnn” over “fox news” search volume is confirmed by their previous presidential election results.</p><p>I realize state elections are not won by county, they’re won by popular vote, and the state of Alabama searches for “fox news” 204,000 more times a month than “cnn” (to put that in perspective, that’s around ~4.27% of Alabama’s population).</p><p>All things aside and regardless of outcome, this was an interesting exploration into how keyword research can offer us a glimpse into popular opinion, future behavior, and search intent. What do you think? Any other predictions we could make to test this theory? What other keywords or factors would you look at? <a href="https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-electoral-prediction#comments" target="_blank">Let us know in the comments</a>.<br /></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/HCCk7vUnoJc" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/keyword-research-2016-presidential-prediction<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-22815525894015795862017-12-11T11:49:00.001-08:002017-12-11T11:49:26.389-08:00Not-Actually-the-Best Local SEO Practices<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/13017/&quot;">MiriamEllis</a></p><p>It’s never fun being the bearer of bad news.</p><p>You’re on the phone with an amazing prospect. Let’s say it’s a growing appliance sales and repair provider with 75 locations in the western US. Your agency would absolutely love to onboard this client, and the contact is telling you, with some pride, that they’re already ranking pretty well for about half of their locations.</p><p>With the right strategy, getting them the rest of the way there should be no problem at all.</p><p>But then you notice something, and your end of the phone conversation falls a little quiet as you click through from one of their Google My Business listings in Visalia to Streetview and see… not a commercial building, but a house. <em>Uh-oh</em>. In answer to your delicately worded question, you find out that 45 of this brand’s listings have been built around the private homes of their repairmen — an egregious violation of <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a>.</p><p>“I hate to tell you this…,” you clear your throat, and then you deliver <em>the bad news</em>.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e148288f3.37415689.jpg" alt="marketingfoundations1.jpg" /></p><p>If you do in-house Local SEO, do it for clients, or even just answer questions in a forum, you’ve surely had the unenviable (yet vital) task of telling someone they’re “doing it wrong,” frequently after they’ve invested considerable resources in creating a marketing structure that threatens to topple due to a crack in its foundation. Sometimes you can patch the crack, but sometimes, whole edifices of bad marketing have to be demolished before safe and secure new buildings can be erected.</p><p>Here are 5 of the commonest foundational marketing mistakes I’ve encountered over the years as a Local SEO consultant and forum participant. If you run into these in your own work, you’ll be doing someone a big favor by delivering “the bad news” as quickly as possible:</p><h2>1. Creating GMB listings at ineligible addresses</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e151c61d6.08246492.jpg" /></p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We need to rank for these other towns, because we want customers there. Well, no, we don’t really have offices there. We have P.O. Boxes/virtual offices/our employees’ houses.”</em></p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p><a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en">Google’s guidelines</a> state:</p><ul><li>Make sure that your page is created at your actual, real-world location</li><li>PO Boxes or mailboxes located at remote locations are not acceptable.</li><li>Service-area businesses—businesses that serve customers at their locations—should have one page for the central office or location and designate a service area from that point.</li></ul><p>All of this adds up to Google saying you shouldn’t create a listing for anything other than a real-world location, but it’s extremely common to see a) spammers simply creating tons of listings for non-existent locations, b) people of good will not knowing the guidelines and doing the same thing, and c) service area businesses (SABs) feeling they have to create fake-location listings because Google won’t rank them for their service cities otherwise.</p><p>In all three scenarios, the brand puts itself at risk for detection and listing removal. Google can catch them, competitors and consumers can catch them, and marketers can catch them. Once caught, any effort that was put into ranking and building reputation around a fake-location listing is wasted. Better to have devoted resources to risk-free marketing efforts that will add up to something real.</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Advise the SAB owner to self-report the problem to Google. I know this sounds risky, but Google My Business forum Top Contributor <a href="https://www.sterlingsky.ca/">Joy Hawkins</a> let me know that <a href="https://www.localsearchforum.com/local-search/44278-forum-etiquette-when-someone-spamming.html">she’s never seen a case in which Google has punished a business that self-reported accidental spam</a>. The owner will likely need to un-verify the spam listings (<a href="https://moz.com/blog/delete-gmb-listing">see how to do that here</a>) and then Google will likely remove the ineligible listings, leaving only the eligible ones intact.</p><p>What about dyed-in-the-wool spammers who know the guidelines and are violating them regardless, turning local pack results into useless junk? Get to the spam listing in Google Maps, click the “Suggest an edit” link, toggle the toggle to “Yes,” and choose the radio button for spam. Google may or may not act on your suggestion. If not, and the spam is misleading to consumers, I think it’s always a good idea to report it to the <a href="https://www.en.advertisercommunity.com/t5/Google-My-Business/ct-p/GMB">Google My Business forum</a> in hopes that a volunteer Top Contributor may escalate an egregious case to a Google staffer.</p><h2>2. Sharing phone numbers between multiple entities</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e15a666b7.84304260.jpg" /></p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I run both my dog walking service and my karate classes out of my house, but I don’t want to have to pay for two different phone lines.”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“Our restaurant has 3 locations in the city now, but we want all the calls to go through one number for reservation purposes. It’s just easier.”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“There are seven doctors at our practice. Front desk handles all calls. We can’t expect the doctors to answer their calls personally.”</em></p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>There are actually multiple issues at hand on this one. First of all, Google’s guidelines state:</p><ul><li>Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible, and provide one website that represents your individual business location.</li><li>Use a local phone number instead of a central, call center helpline number whenever possible.</li><li>The phone number must be under the direct control of the business.</li></ul><p>This rules out having the phone number of a single location representing multiple locations.</p><h4>Confusing to Google</h4><p>Google has also been known in the past to phone businesses for verification purposes. Should a business answer “Jim’s Dog Walking” when a Google rep is calling to verify that the phone number is associated with “Jim’s Karate Lessons,” we’re in trouble. Shared phone numbers have also been suspected in the past of causing accidental merging of Google listings, though I’ve not seen a case of this in a couple of years.</p><h4>Confusing for businesses</h4><p>As for the multi-practitioner scenario, the reality is that some business models simply don’t allow for practitioners to answer their own phones. Calls for doctors, dentists, attorneys, etc. are traditionally routed through a front desk. This reality calls into question whether forward-facing listings should be built for these individuals at all. We’ll dive deeper into this topic below, in the section on multi-practitioner listings.</p><h4>Confusing for the ecosystem</h4><p>Beyond Google-related concerns, Moz Local’s awesome engineers have taught me some rather amazing things about the problems shared phone numbers can create for citation-building campaigns in the greater ecosystem. Many local business data platforms are highly dependent on unique phone numbers as a signal of entity uniqueness (the “P” in NAP is powerful!). So, for example, if you submit both Jim’s Dog Walking and Jim’s Bookkeeping to Infogroup with the same number, Infogroup may publish both listings, <em>but leave the phone number fields blank</em>! And without a phone number, a local business listing is pretty worthless.</p><p>It’s because of realities like these that a unique phone number for each entity is a requirement of the Moz Local product, and should be a prerequisite for any citation building campaign.</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>Let the business owner know that a unique phone number for each business entity, each business location, and each forward-facing practitioner who wants to be listed is a necessary business expense (and, hey, likely tax deductible, too!). Once the investment has been made in the unique numbers, the work ahead involves editing all existing citations to reflect them. The free tool <a href="https://moz.com/local/search" target="_blank">Moz Check Listing</a> can help you instantly locate existing citations for the purpose of creating a spreadsheet that details the bad data, allowing you to start correcting it manually. Or, to save time, the business owner may wish to invest in a paid, automated citation correction product like <a href="https://moz.com/products/local" target="_blank">Moz Local</a>.</p><p>Pro tip: Apart from removing local business listing stumbling blocks, unique phone numbers have an added bonus in that they enable the benefits of associating KPIs like clicks-to-call to a given entity, and existing numbers can be ported into call tracking numbers for even further analysis of traffic and conversions. You just can’t enjoy these benefits if you lump multiple entities together under a single, shared number.</p><h2>3. Keyword stuffing GMB listing names</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16362811.10055424.jpg" /></p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“I have 5 locations in Dallas. How are my customers supposed to find the right one unless I add the neighborhood name to the business name on the listings?”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“We want customers to know we do both acupuncture and massage, so we put both in the listing name.”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“Well, no, the business name doesn’t actually have a city name in it, but my competitors are adding city names to their GMB listings and they’re outranking me!”</em></p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Long story short, it’s a blatant violation of Google’s guidelines to put extraneous keywords in the business name field of a GMB listing. Google states:</p><ul><li>Your name should reflect your business’ real-world name, as used consistently on your storefront, website, stationery, and as known to customers.</li><li>Including unnecessary information in your business name is not permitted, and could result in your listing being suspended.</li></ul><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>I consider this a genuine Local SEO toughie. On the one hand, Google’s lack of enforcement of these guidelines, and apparent lack of concern about the whole thing, makes it difficult to adequately alarm business owners about the risk of suspension. I’ve successfully reported keyword stuffing violations to Google and have had them act on my reports within 24 hours… only to have the spammy names reappear hours or days afterwards. If there’s a suspension of some kind going on here, I don’t see it.</p><p>Simultaneously, Google’s local algo apparently continues to be influenced by exact keyword matches. When a business owner sees competitors outranking him via outlawed practices which Google appears to ignore, the Local SEO may feel slightly idiotic urging guideline-compliance from his patch of shaky ground.</p><p>But, do it anyway. For two reasons:</p><ol><li>If you’re not teaching business owners about the importance of brand building at this point, you’re not really teaching marketing. Ask the owner, “Are you into building a lasting brand, or are you hoping to get by on tricks?” Smart owners (and their marketers) will see that it’s a more legitimate strategy to build a future based on earning permanent local brand recognition for <em>Lincoln &amp; Herndon</em>, than for <em>Springfield Car Accident Slip and Fall Personal Injury Lawyers Attorneys.</em></li><li>I find it interesting that, in all of Google’s guidelines, the word “suspended” is used only a few times, and one of these rare instances relates to spamming the business title field. In other words, Google is using the strongest possible language to warn against this practice, and that makes me quite nervous about tying large chunks of reputation and rankings to a tactic against which Google has forewarned. I remember that companies were doing all kinds of risky things on the eve of the <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change" target="_blank">Panda and Penguin updates</a> and they woke up to a changed webscape in which they were no longer winners. Because of this, I advocate alerting any business owner who is risking his livelihood to chancy shortcuts. Better to build things for real, for the long haul.</li></ol><p>Fortunately, it only takes a few seconds to sign into a GMB account and remove extraneous keywords from a business name. If it needs to be done at scale for large multi-location enterprises across the major aggregators, Moz Local can get the job done. Will removing spammy keywords from the GMB listing title cause the business to move down in Google’s local rankings? It’s possible that they will, but at least they’ll be able to go forward building real stuff, with the moral authority to report rule-breaking competitors and keep at it until Google acts.</p><p>And tell owners not to worry about Google not being able to sort out a downtown location from an uptown one for consumers. Google’s ability to parse user proximity is getting better every day. Mobile-local packs prove this out. If one location is wrongly outranking another, chances are good the business needs to do <a href="https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit">an audit</a> to discover weaknesses that are holding the more appropriate listing back. That’s real strategy - no tricks!</p><h2>4. Creating a multi-site morass</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e16cd5934.12429006.jpg" /></p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“So, to cover all 3 or our locations, we have greengrocerysandiego.com, greengrocerymonterey.com and greengrocerymendocino.com… but the problem is, the content on the three sites is kind of all the same. What should we do to make the sites different?”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“So, to cover all of our services, we have jimsappliancerepair.com, jimswashingmachinerepair.com, jimsdryerrepair.com, jimshotwaterheaterrepair.com, jimsrefrigeratorrepair.com. We’re about to buy jimsvacuumrepair.com … but the problem is, there’s not much content on any of these sites. It feels like management is getting out of hand.”</em></p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>Definitely a frequent topic in SEO forums, the practice of relying on exact match domains (EMDs) proliferates because of Google’s historic bias in their favor. The ranking influence of EMDs has been the subject of <a href="https://moz.com/google-algorithm-change#2012" target="_blank">a Google update</a>and has lessened over time. I wouldn’t want to try to rank for competitive terms with creditcards.com or insurance.com these days.</p><p>But if you believe EMDs no longer work in the local-organic world, read this post in which a fellow’s surname/domain name gets mixed up with a distant city name and he ends up <a href="https://moz.com/ugc/case-study-the-interconnectedness-of-local-seo-and-exact-match-domains" target="_blank">ranking in the local packs for it</a>! Chances are, you see weak EMDs ranking all the time for your local searches — more’s the pity. And, no doubt, this ranking boost is the driving force behind local business models continuing to purchase multiple keyword-oriented domains to represent branches of their company or the variety of services they offer. This approach is problematic for 3 chief reasons:</p><ol><li>It’s impractical. The majority of the forum threads I’ve encountered in which small-to-medium local businesses have ended up with two, or five, or ten domains invariably lead to the discovery that the websites are made up of either thin or <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/duplicate-content" target="_blank">duplicate content</a>. Larger enterprises are often guilty of the same. What seemed like a great idea at first, buying up all those EMDs, turns into an unmanageable morass of web properties that no one has the time to keep updated, to write for, or to market.</li><li>Specific to the multi-service business, it’s not a smart move to put single-location NAP on multiple websites. In other words, if your construction firm is located at 123 Main Street in Funky Town, but consumers and Google are finding that same physical address associated with fences.com, bathroomremodeling.com, decks.com, and kitchenremodeling.com, you are sowing confusion in the ecosystem. Which is the authoritative business associated with that address? Some business owners further compound problems by assuming they can then build separate sets of local business listings for each of these different service-oriented domains, violating Google’s guidelines, which state:<br /><br /><em>Do not create more than one page for each location of your business.</em><em><br /></em><em><br /></em>The whole thing can become a giant mess, instead of the clean, manageable simplicity of a single brand, tied to a single domain, with a single NAP signal.</li></ol><ol><li>With rare-to-nonexistent exceptions, I consider EMDs to be missed opportunities for brand building. Imagine, if instead of being Whole Foods at WholeFoods.com, the natural foods giant had decided they needed to try to squeeze a ranking boost out of buying 400+ domains to represent the eventual number of locations they now operate. WholeFoodsDallas.com, WholeFoodsMississauga.com, etc? Such an approach would get out of hand very fast.</li></ol><p>Even the smallest businesses should take cues from big commerce. Your brand is the magic password you want on every consumer’s lips, associated with every service you offer, in every location you open. As I <a href="https://moz.com/community/q/to-re-domain-or-not-re-domain-that-is-the-question" target="_blank">recently suggested to a Moz community member</a>, be proud to domain your flower shop as <em>rossirovetti.com</em> instead of hoping <em>FloralDelivery24hoursSanFrancisco.com</em> will boost your rankings. It’s authentic, easy to remember, looks trustworthy in the SERPs, and is ripe for memorable brand building.</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>While I can’t speak to the minutiae of every single scenario, I’ve yet to be part of a discussion about multi-sites in the Local SEO community in which I didn’t advise consolidation. Basically, the business should choose a single, proud domain and, in most cases, 301 redirect the old sites to the main one, then work to get as many external links that pointed to the multi-sites to point to the chosen main site. <a href="https://moz.com/blog/2-become-1-merging-two-domains-made-us-an-seo-killing" target="_blank">This oldie but goodie from the Moz blog</a> provides a further technical checklist from a company that saw a 40% increase in traffic after consolidating domains. I’d recommend that any business that is nervous about handling the tech aspects of consolidation in-house should hire a qualified SEO to help them through the process.</p><h2>5. Creating ill-considered practitioner listings</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices/5a2e1e1769b7b1.50050410.jpg" /></p><h3>What you’ll hear:</h3><p><em>“We have 5 dentists at the practice, but one moved/retired last month and we don’t know what to do with the GMB listing for him.”</em></p><p>-or-</p><p><em>“Dr. Green is outranking the practice in the local results for some reason, and it’s really annoying.”</em></p><h3>Why it’s a problem:</h3><p>I’ve saved the most complex for last! Multi-practitioner listings can be a blessing, but they’re so often a bane that my position on creating them has evolved to a point where I only recommend building them in specific cases.</p><p>When Google first enabled practitioner listings (listings that represent each doctor, lawyer, dentist, or agent within a business) I saw them as a golden opportunity for a given practice to dominate local search results with its presence. However, Google’s subsequent unwillingness to simply remove practitioner duplicates, coupled with the rollout of the <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-possum" target="_blank">Possum update</a> which filters out shared category/similar location listings, coupled with the number of instances I’ve seen in which practitioner listings end up outranking brand listings, has caused me to change my opinion of their benefits. I should also add that the business title field on practitioner listings is a hotbed of Google guideline violations — few business owners have ever read Google’s nitty gritty rules about how to name these types of listings.</p><p>In a nutshell, practitioner listings gone awry can result in a bunch of wrongly-named listings often clouded by duplicates that Google won’t remove, all competing for the same keywords. Not good!</p><h3>What to do about it:</h3><p>You’ll have multiple scenarios to address when offering advice about this topic.</p><p>1.) If the business is brand new, and there is no record of it on the Internet as of yet, then I would only recommend creating practitioner listings if it is necessary to point out an area of specialization. So, for example if a medical practice has 5 MDs, the listing for the practice covers that, with no added listings needed. But, if a medical practice has 5 MDs and an Otolaryngologist, it may be good marketing to give the specialist his own listing, <em>because it has its own GMB category</em> and won’t be competing with the practice for rankings. *However, read on to understand the challenges being undertaken any time a multi-practitioner listing is created.</p><p>2.) If the multi-practitioner business is not new, chances are very good that there are listings out there for present, past, and even deceased practitioners.</p><ul><li>If a partner is current, be sure you point his listing at a landing page on the practice’s website, instead of at the homepage, see if you can differentiate categories, and do your utmost to optimize the practice’s own listing — the point here is to prevent practitioners from outranking the practice. What do I mean by optimization? Be sure the practice’s GMB listing is fully filled out, you’ve got amazing photos, you’re actively earning and responding to reviews, you’re publishing a Google Post at least once a week, and your citations across the web are consistent. These things should all strengthen the listing for the practice.</li><li>If a partner is no longer with the practice, it’s ideal to unverify the listing and ask Google to market it as moved to the practice — not to the practitioner’s new location. Sound goofy? <a href="https://searchengineland.com/cannot-ignore-practitioner-listings-gmb-case-study-253314" target="_blank">Read Joy Hawkins’ smart explanation of this convoluted issue</a>.</li><li>If, sadly, a practitioner has passed away, contact Google to show them an obituary so that the listing can be removed.</li><li>If a listing represents what is actually a solo practitioner (instead of a partner in a multi-practitioner business model) and his GMB listing is now competing with the listing for his business, you can ask Google to merge the two listings.</li></ul><p>3.) If a business wants to create practitioner listings, and they feel up to the task of handling any ranking or situational management concerns, there is one final proviso I’d add. Google’s guidelines state that practitioners should be “directly contactable at the verified location during stated hours” in order to qualify for a GMB listing. I’ve always found this requirement rather vague. Contactable by phone? Contactable in person? Google doesn’t specify. Presumably, a real estate agent in a multi-practitioner agency might be directly contactable, but as my graphic above illustrates, we wouldn’t really expect the same public availability of a surgeon, right? Point being, it may only make marketing sense to create a practitioner listing for someone who needs to be directly available to the consumer public for the business to function. I consider this a genuine grey area in the guidelines, so think it through carefully before acting.</p><h2>Giving good help</h2><p>It’s genuinely an honor to advise owners and marketers who are strategizing for the success of local businesses. In our own small way, local SEO consultants live in the neighborhood Mister Rogers envisioned in which you could <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LGHtc_D328" target="_blank">look for the helpers</a> when confronted with trouble. Given the livelihoods dependent on local commerce, rescuing a company from a foundational marketing mistake is satisfying work for people who like to be “helpers,” and it carries a weight of responsibility.</p><p>I’ve worked in 3 different SEO forums over the past 10+ years, and I’d like to close with some things I’ve learned about helping:</p><ol><li>Learn to ask the right questions. Small nuances in business models and scenarios can necessitate completely different advice. Don’t be scared to come back with second and third rounds of follow-up queries if someone hasn’t provided sufficient detail for you to advise them well. Read all details thoroughly before replying.</li><li>Always, always consult <a href="https://support.google.com/business/answer/3038177?hl=en" target="_blank">Google’s guidelines</a>, and link to them in your answers. It’s absolutely amazing how few owners and marketers have ever encountered them. Local SEOs are volunteer liaisons between Google and businesses. That’s just the way things have worked out.</li><li>Don’t say you’re sure unless you’re really sure. If a forum or client question necessitates a full audit to surface a useful answer, say so. Giving pat answers to complicated queries helps no one, and can actually hurt businesses by leaving them in limbo, losing money, for an even longer time.</li><li>Network with colleagues when weird things come up. Ranking drops can be attributed to new Google updates, or bugs, or other factors you haven’t yet noticed but that a trusted peer may have encountered.</li><li>Practice humility. 90% of what I know about Local SEO, I’ve learned from people coming to me with problems for which, at some point, I had to discover answers. Over time, the work put in builds up our store of ready knowledge, but we will never know it all, and that’s humbling in a very good way. Community members and clients are our <em>teachers</em>. Let’s be grateful for them, and treat them with respect.</li><li>Finally, don’t stress about delivering “the bad news” when you see someone who is asking for help making a marketing mistake. In the long run, your honesty will be the best gift you could possibly have given.</li></ol><p>Happy helping!</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/qIcbTvT7wOA" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/not-actually-the-best-local-seo-practices<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-29749206826122821212017-12-08T12:05:00.001-08:002017-12-08T12:05:10.001-08:00What Do Google's New, Longer Snippets Mean for SEO? - Whiteboard Friday<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/63/&quot;">randfish</a></p><p>Snippets and meta descriptions have brand-new character limits, and it's a big change for Google and SEOs alike. Learn about what's new, when it changed, and what it all means for SEO in this edition of Whiteboard Friday.</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/rzyt0jmt93?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe></p><script rel="display: none;" src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/what-do-google-s-new-longer-snippets-mean-for-seo-whiteboard-friday/5a29b6a7c4f1f4.33866068.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/what-do-google-s-new-longer-snippets-mean-for-seo-whiteboard-friday/5a29b6a7c4f1f4.33866068.jpg" alt="What do Google's now, longer snippets mean for SEO?" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/366792656&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true">&amp;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about Google's big change to the snippet length.<br /><br />This is the display length of the snippet for any given result in the search results that Google provides. This is on both mobile and desktop. It sort of impacts the meta description, which is how many snippets are written. They're taken from the meta description tag of the web page. Google essentially said just last week, "Hey, we have officially increased the length, the recommended length, and the display length of what we will show in the text snippet of standard organic results."</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/1-216207.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p>So I'm illustrating that for you here. I did a search for "net neutrality bill," something that's on the minds of a lot of Americans right now. You can see here that this article from The Hill, which is a recent article — it was two days ago — has a much longer text snippet than what we would normally expect to find. In fact, I went ahead and counted this one and then showed it here. <p><br />So basically, at the old 165-character limit, which is what you would have seen prior to the middle of December on most every search result, occasionally Google would have a longer one for very specific kinds of search results, but more than 90%, according to data from SISTRIX, which put out a great report and I'll link to it here, more than <a href="https://www.sistrix.com/blog/google-permits-longer-snippet-texts/" target="_blank">90% of search snippets were 165 characters or less</a> prior to the middle of November. Then Google added basically a few more lines.</p><p>So now, on mobile and desktop, instead of an average of two or three lines, we're talking three, four, five, sometimes even six lines of text. So this snippet here is 266 characters that Google is displaying. The next result, from Save the Internet, is 273 characters. Again, this might be because Google sort of realized, "Hey, we almost got all of this in here. Let's just carry it through to the end rather than showing the ellipsis." But you can see that 165 characters would cut off right here. This one actually does a good job of displaying things.</p><p>So imagine a searcher is querying for something in your field and they're just looking for a basic understanding of what it is. So they've never heard of net neutrality. They're not sure what it is. So they can read here, "Net neutrality is the basic principle that prohibits internet service providers like AT&amp;T, Comcast, and Verizon from speeding up, slowing down, or blocking any . . ." And that's where it would cut off. Or that's where it would have cut off in November.</p><p>Now, if I got a snippet like that, I need to visit the site. I've got to click through in order to learn more. That doesn't tell me enough to give me the data to go through. Now, Google has tackled this before with things, like a featured snippet, that sit at the top of the search results, that are a more expansive short answer. But in this case, I can get the rest of it because now, as of mid-November, Google has lengthened this. So now I can get, "Any content, applications, or websites you want to use. Net neutrality is the way that the Internet has always worked."</p><p>Now, you might quibble and say this is not a full, thorough understanding of what net neutrality is, and I agree. But for a lot of searchers, this is good enough. They don't need to click any more. This extension from 165 to 275 or 273, in this case, has really done the trick.</p><h2>What changed?</h2><p>So this can have a bunch of changes to SEO too. So the change that happened here is that Google updated basically two things. One, they updated the snippet length, and two, they updated their guidelines around it.</p><p>So Google's had historic guidelines that said, well, you want to keep your meta description tag between about 160 and 180 characters. I think that was the number. They've updated that to where they say there's no official meta description recommended length. But on Twitter, Danny Sullivan said that he would probably not make that greater than 320 characters. In fact, we and other data providers, that collect a lot of search results, didn't find many that extended beyond 300. So I think that's a reasonable thing.</p><h2>When?</h2><p>When did this happen? It was starting at about mid-November. November 22nd is when SISTRIX's dataset starts to notice the increase, and it was over 50%. Now it's sitting at about 51% of search results that have these longer snippets in at least 1 of the top 10 as of December 2nd.</p><p>Here's the amazing thing, though — 51% of search results have at least one. Many of those, because they're still pulling old meta descriptions or meta descriptions that SEO has optimized for the 165-character limit, are still very short. So if you're the person in your search results, especially it's holiday time right now, lots of ecommerce action, if you're the person to go update your important pages right now, you might be able to get more real estate in the search results than any of your competitors in the SERPs because they're not updating theirs.</p><h2>How will this affect SEO?</h2><p>So how is this going to really change SEO? Well, three things:</p><h3>A. It changes how marketers should write and optimize the meta description.</h3><p>We're going to be writing a little bit differently because we have more space. We're going to be trying to entice people to click, but we're going to be very conscientious that we want to try and answer a lot of this in the search result itself, because if we can, there's a good chance that Google will rank us higher, even if we're actually sort of sacrificing clicks by helping the searcher get the answer they need in the search result.</p><h3>B. It may impact click-through rate.</h3><p>We'll be looking at Jumpshot data over the next few months and year ahead. We think that there are two likely ways they could do it. Probably negatively, meaning fewer clicks on less complex queries. But conversely, possible it will get more clicks on some more complex queries, because people are more enticed by the longer description. Fingers crossed, that's kind of what you want to do as a marketer.</p><h3>C. It may lead to lower click-through rate further down in the search results.</h3><p>If you think about the fact that this is taking up the real estate that was taken up by three results with two, as of a month ago, well, maybe people won't scroll as far down. Maybe the ones that are higher up will in fact draw more of the clicks, and thus being further down on page one will have less value than it used to.</p><h2>What should SEOs do?</h2><p>What are things that you should do right now? Number one, make a priority list — you should probably already have this — of your most important landing pages by search traffic, the ones that receive the most search traffic on your website, organic search. Then I would go and reoptimize those meta descriptions for the longer limits.</p><p>Now, you can judge as you will. My advice would be go to the SERPs that are sending you the most traffic, that you're ranking for the most. Go check out the limits. They're probably between about 250 and 300, and you can optimize somewhere in there.</p><p>The second thing I would do is if you have internal processes or your CMS has rules around how long you can make a meta description tag, you're going to have to update those probably from the old limit of somewhere in the 160 to 180 range to the new 230 to 320 range. It doesn't look like many are smaller than 230 now, at least limit-wise, and it doesn't look like anything is particularly longer than 320. So somewhere in there is where you're going to want to stay.</p><p>Good luck with your new meta descriptions and with your new snippet optimization. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/CnzBtuconkk" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/googles-longer-snippets<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-65157965637835676822017-12-07T12:05:00.001-08:002017-12-07T12:05:17.062-08:00Don't Be Fooled by Data: 4 Data Analysis Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/726559/&quot;">Tom.Capper</a></p><p>Digital marketing is a proudly data-driven field. Yet, as SEOs especially, we often have such incomplete or questionable data to work with, that we end up jumping to the wrong conclusions in our attempts to substantiate our arguments or quantify our issues and opportunities.</p><p>In this post, I’m going to outline 4 data analysis pitfalls that are endemic in our industry, and how to avoid them.</p><h2>1. Jumping to conclusions</h2><p>Earlier this year, I conducted a ranking factor study around brand awareness, and I posted this caveat:</p><blockquote><em>"...the fact that Domain Authority (or branded search volume, or anything else) is positively correlated with rankings could indicate that any or all of the following is likely:</em><ul><li><em>Links cause sites to rank well</em></li><li><em>Ranking well causes sites to get links</em></li><li><em>Some third factor (e.g. reputation or age of site) causes sites to get both links and rankings"<br />~ <a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume" target="_blank">Me</a></em></li></ul></blockquote><p><a href="https://moz.com/blog/rankings-correlation-study-domain-authority-vs-branded-search-volume"></a></p><p>However, I want to go into this in a bit more depth and give you a framework for analyzing these yourself, because it still comes up a lot. Take, for example, this <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/link-as-a-ranking-factor/" target="_blank">recent study by Stone Temple</a>, which you may have seen in the Moz Top 10 or Rand’s <a href="https://twitter.com/randfish/status/907995200986869761" target="_blank">tweets</a>, or this <a href="https://webmarketingschool.com/semrush-direct-traffic-ranking-factor-claim/" target="_blank">excellent article</a> discussing SEMRush’s recent direct traffic findings. To be absolutely clear, I’m not criticizing either of the studies, but I do want to draw attention to how we might interpret them.</p><p>Firstly, we do tend to suffer a little confirmation bias — we’re all too eager to call out the cliché “correlation vs. causation” distinction when we see successful sites that are keyword-stuffed, but all too approving when we see studies doing the same with something we think is or was effective, like links.</p><p>Secondly, we fail to critically analyze the potential mechanisms. The options aren’t just causation or coincidence.</p><p>Before you jump to a conclusion based on a correlation, you’re obliged to consider various possibilities:</p><ul><li>Complete coincidence</li><li>Reverse causation</li><li>Joint causation</li><li>Linearity</li><li>Broad applicability</li></ul><p>If those don’t make any sense, then that’s fair enough — they’re jargon. Let’s go through an example:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e7089deb53.58500794.png" /></p><p>Before I warn you not to eat cheese because you may die in your bedsheets, I’m obliged to check that it isn’t any of the following:</p><ul><li><strong>Complete coincidence -</strong> Is it possible that so many datasets were compared, that some were bound to be similar? Why, that’s exactly what <a href="http://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations" target="_blank">Tyler Vigen</a> did! <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li><li><strong>Reverse causation -</strong> Is it possible that we have this the wrong way around? For example, perhaps your relatives, in mourning for your bedsheet-related death, eat cheese in large quantities to comfort themselves? This seems pretty unlikely, so let’s give it a pass. <em><strong>No, this is very unlikely.</strong></em></li><li><strong>Joint causation -</strong> Is it possible that some third factor is behind both of these? Maybe increasing affluence makes you healthier (so you don’t die of things like malnutrition), and also causes you to eat more cheese? This seems very plausible. <em><strong>Yes, this is possible.</strong></em></li><li><strong>Linearity -</strong> Are we comparing two linear trends? A linear trend is a steady rate of growth or decline. Any two statistics which are both roughly linear over time will be very well correlated. In the graph above, both our statistics are trending linearly upwards. If the graph was drawn with different scales, they might look completely unrelated, like <a href="https://imgur.com/muS5w9b" target="_blank">this</a>, but because they both have a steady rate, they’d still be very well correlated. <em><strong>Yes, this looks likely.</strong></em></li><li><strong>Broad applicability -</strong> Is it possible that this relationship only exists in certain niche scenarios, or, at least, not in my niche scenario? Perhaps, for example, cheese does this to some people, and that’s been enough to create this correlation, because there are so few bedsheet-tangling fatalities otherwise? <em><strong>Yes, this seems possible.</strong></em></li></ul><p>So we have 4 “<em>Yes</em>” answers and one “<em>No</em>” answer from those 5 checks.</p><p>If your example doesn’t get 5 “<em>No</em>” answers from those 5 checks, it’s a fail, and you don’t get to say that the study has established either a ranking factor or a fatal side effect of cheese consumption.</p><p>A similar process should apply to case studies, which are another form of correlation — the correlation between you making a change, and something good (or bad!) happening. For example, ask:</p><ul><li>Have I ruled out other factors (e.g. external demand, seasonality, competitors making mistakes)?</li><li>Did I increase traffic by doing the thing I tried to do, or did I accidentally improve some other factor at the same time?</li><li>Did this work because of the unique circumstance of the particular client/project?</li></ul><p>This is particularly challenging for SEOs, because we rarely have data of this quality, but I’d suggest an additional pair of questions to help you navigate this minefield:</p><ul><li>If I were Google, would I do this?</li><li>If I were Google, could I do this?</li></ul><p>Direct traffic as a ranking factor passes the “could” test, but only barely — Google could use data from Chrome, Android, or ISPs, but it’d be sketchy. It doesn’t really pass the “would” test, though — it’d be far easier for Google to use branded search traffic, which would answer the same questions you might try to answer by comparing direct traffic levels (e.g. how popular is this website?).</p><h2>2. Missing the context</h2><p>If I told you that my traffic was up 20% week on week today, what would you say? Congratulations?</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70914fd70.02061093.png" /></p><p>What if it was up 20% this time last year?</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e709992347.54502962.png" /></p><p>What if I told you it had been up 20% year on year, up until recently?</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/data-analysis-pitfalls/5a28e70a17bd95.25982670.png" /></p><p>It’s funny how a little context can completely change this. This is another problem with case studies and their evil inverted twin, traffic drop analyses.</p><p>If we really want to understand whether to be surprised at something, positively or negatively, we need to compare it to our expectations, and then figure out what deviation from our expectations is “normal.” If this is starting to sound like statistics, that’s because it is statistics — indeed, I wrote about a statistical approach to measuring change way back in <a href="https://www.distilled.net/resources/statistical-forecasting-for-seo-analytics-and-a-free-tool/" target="_blank">2015</a>.</p><p>If you want to be lazy, though, a good rule of thumb is to zoom out, and add in those previous years. And if someone shows you data that is suspiciously zoomed in, you might want to take it with a pinch of salt.</p><h2>3. Trusting our tools</h2><p>Would you make a multi-million dollar business decision based on a number that your competitor could manipulate at will? Well, chances are you do, and the number can be found in Google Analytics. I’ve covered this extensively in <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/THCapper/everything-you-didnt-know-about-google-analytics-measurefest-november-2016" target="_blank">other places</a>, but there are some major problems with most analytics platforms around:</p><ul><li>How easy they are to manipulate externally</li><li>How arbitrarily they group hits into sessions</li><li>How vulnerable they are to ad blockers</li><li>How they perform under sampling, and how obvious they make this</li></ul><p>For example, did you know that the Google Analytics API v3 can heavily sample data whilst telling you that the data is unsampled, above a certain amount of traffic (~500,000 within date range)? Neither did I, until we ran into it whilst building Distilled ODN.</p><p>Similar problems exist with many “Search Analytics” tools. My colleague <a href="https://twitter.com/samnemzer" target="_blank">Sam Nemzer</a> has written a bunch about this — did you know that most rank tracking platforms report <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/SamNemzer/are-the-first-things-you-learnt-about-seo-still-true/36?src=clipshare">completely different rankings</a>? Or how about the fact that the keywords grouped by Google (and thus tools like SEMRush and STAT, too) are <a href="https://moz.com/blog/google-grouping-keyword-volumes-what-does-this-mean-for-seo" target="_blank">not equivalent</a>, and don’t necessarily have the volumes quoted?</p><p>It’s important to understand the strengths and weaknesses of tools that we use, so that we can at least know when they’re directionally accurate (as in, their insights guide you in the right direction), even if not perfectly accurate. All I can really recommend here is that skilling up in SEO (or any other digital channel) necessarily means understanding the mechanics behind your measurement platforms — which is why all new starts at Distilled end up learning how to do analytics audits.</p><p>One of the most common solutions to the root problem is combining multiple data sources, but…</p><h2>4. Combining data sources</h2><p>There are numerous platforms out there that will “defeat (not provided)” by bringing together data from two or more of:</p><ul><li>Analytics</li><li>Search Console</li><li>AdWords</li><li>Rank tracking</li></ul><p>The problems here are that, firstly, these platforms do not have equivalent definitions, and secondly, ironically, (not provided) tends to break them.</p><p>Let’s deal with definitions first, with an example — let’s look at a landing page with a channel:</p><ul><li>In Search Console, these are reported as <em>clicks</em>, and can be vulnerable to heavy, invisible sampling when multiple dimensions (e.g. keyword and page) or filters are combined.</li><li>In Google Analytics, these are reported using <em>last non-direct click</em>, meaning that your organic traffic includes a bunch of direct sessions, time-outs that resumed mid-session, etc. That’s without getting into dark traffic, ad blockers, etc.</li><li>In AdWords, most reporting uses <em>last AdWords click</em>, and conversions may be defined differently. In addition, keyword volumes are bundled, as referenced above.</li><li>Rank tracking is location specific, and inconsistent, as referenced above.</li></ul><p>Fine, though — it may not be precise, but you can at least get to some <em>directionally</em> useful data given these limitations. However, about that “(not provided)”...</p><p>Most of your landing pages get traffic from more than one keyword. It’s very likely that some of these keywords convert better than others, particularly if they are branded, meaning that even the most thorough click-through rate model isn’t going to help you. So how do you know which keywords are valuable?</p><p>The best answer is to generalize from AdWords data for those keywords, but it’s very unlikely that you have analytics data for all those combinations of keyword and landing page. Essentially, the tools that report on this make the very bold assumption that a given page converts identically for all keywords. Some are more transparent about this than others.</p><p>Again, this isn’t to say that those tools aren’t valuable — they just need to be understood carefully. The only way you could reliably fill in these blanks created by “not provided” would be to spend a ton on paid search to get decent volume, conversion rate, and bounce rate estimates for all your keywords, and even then, you’ve not fixed the inconsistent definitions issues.</p><h2>Bonus peeve: Average rank</h2><p>I still see this way too often. Three questions:</p><ol><li>Do you care more about losing rankings for ten very low volume queries (10 searches a month or less) than for one high volume query (millions plus)? If the answer isn’t “yes, I absolutely care more about the ten low-volume queries”, then this metric isn’t for you, and you should consider a visibility metric based on click through rate estimates.</li><li>When you start ranking at 100 for a keyword you didn’t rank for before, does this make you unhappy? If the answer isn’t “yes, I hate ranking for new keywords,” then this metric isn’t for you — because that will lower your average rank. You could of course treat all non-ranking keywords as position 100, as some tools allow, but is a drop of 2 average rank positions really the best way to express that 1/50 of your landing pages have been de-indexed? Again, use a visibility metric, please.</li><li>Do you like comparing your performance with your competitors? If the answer isn’t “no, of course not,” then this metric isn’t for you — your competitors may have more or fewer branded keywords or long-tail rankings, and these will skew the comparison. Again, use a visibility metric.</li></ol><h2>Conclusion</h2><p>Hopefully, you’ve found this useful. To summarize the main takeaways:</p><ul><li>Critically analyse correlations &amp; case studies by seeing if you can explain them as coincidences, as reverse causation, as joint causation, through reference to a third mutually relevant factor, or through niche applicability.</li><li>Don’t look at changes in traffic without looking at the context — what would you have forecasted for this period, and with what margin of error?</li><li>Remember that the tools we use have limitations, and do your research on how that impacts the numbers they show. “<em>How has this number been produced?”</em> is an important component in <em>“What does this number mean?”</em></li><li>If you end up combining data from multiple tools, remember to work out the relationship between them — treat this information as directional rather than precise.</li></ul><p>Let me know what data analysis fallacies bug you, <a href="https://moz.com/blog/data-analysis-pitfalls#comments">in the comments below</a>.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/COElfU7-2lM" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/data-analysis-pitfalls<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-91926533498701036312017-12-06T11:55:00.001-08:002017-12-06T11:55:09.845-08:00Our Readership: Results of the 2017 Moz Blog Reader Survey<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/544762/&quot;">Trevor-Klein</a></p><p>This blog is for all of you. In a notoriously opaque and confusing industry that's prone to frequent changes, we see immense benefit in helping all of you stay on top of the game. To that end, every couple of years we ask for a report card of sorts, hoping not only to get a sense for how your jobs have changed, but also to get a sense for how we can improve.</p><p>About a month ago, we asked you all to take a reader survey, and nearly 600 of you generously gave your time. The results, summarized in this post, were immensely helpful, and were a reminder of how lucky we are to have such a thoughtful community of readers.</p><p>I've offered as much data as I can, and when possible, I've also trended responses against the same questions from our 2015 and 2013 surveys, so you can get a sense for how things have changed. There's a lot here, so buckle up. =)</p><hr /><h2>Who our readers are</h2><p>To put all of this great feedback into context, it helps to know a bit about who the people in our audience actually are. Sure, we can glean a bit of information from our site analytics, and can make some educated guesses, but neither of those can answer the questions we're most curious about. What's your day-to-day work like, and how much SEO does it really involve? Would you consider yourself more of an SEO beginner, or more of an SEO wizard? And, most importantly, what challenges are you facing in your work these days? The answers give us a fuller understanding of where the rest of your feedback comes from.</p><h3>What is your job title?</h3><p>Readers of the Moz Blog have a multitude of backgrounds, from CEOs of agencies to in-the-weeds SEOs of all skill levels. One of the most common themes we see, though, is a skew toward the more general marketing industry. I know that word clouds have their faults, but it's still a relatively interesting way to gauge how often things appear in a list like this, so here's what we've got this year:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499af0b5b9.47945419.jpg" /></p><p>Of note, similar to our results in 2015, the word "marketing" is the most common result, followed by the word "SEO" and the word "manager."</p><p>Here's a look at the top 20 terms used in this year's results, along with the percentage of responses containing each term. You'll also see those same percentages from the 2015 and 2013 surveys to give you an idea of what's changed -- the darker the bar, the more recent the survey:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499be931f5.90994273.png" /></p><p>The thing that surprises me the most about this list is how little it's changed in the four-plus years since we first asked the question (a theme you'll see recur in the rest of these results). In fact, the top 20 terms this year are nearly identical to the top 20 terms four years ago, with only a few things sliding up or down a few spots.</p><h3>What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?</h3><p>We hear a lot about people wearing multiple hats for their companies. One person who took this survey noted that even at a 9,000-person company, they were the only one who worked on SEO, and it was only about 80% of their job. That idea is backed up by this data, which shows an incredibly broad range of responses. More than 10% of respondents barely touch SEO, and not even 14% say they're full-time:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499c57faf0.02677389.png" /></p><p>One interesting thing to note is the sharp decline in the number of people who say that SEO isn't a part of their day-to-day at all. That shift is likely a result of our shift back toward SEO, away from related areas like social media and content marketing. I think we had attracted a significant number of community managers and content specialists who didn't work in SEO, and we're now seeing the pendulum swing the other direction.</p><h3>On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?</h3><p>The similarity between this year's graph for this question and those from 2015 and 2013 is simply astonishing:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499cbff7e7.86135897.png" /></p><p>There's been a slight drop in folks who say they're at an expert level, and a slight increase in folks who have some background, but are relative beginners. But only slight. The interesting thing is, our blog traffic has increased significantly over these four years, so the newer members of our audience bear a striking resemblance to those of you who've been around for quite some time. In a sense, that's reassuring -- it paints a clear picture for us as we continue refining our content.</p><h3>Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?</h3><p>Here's another window into just how little our audience has changed in the last couple of years:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d2a5c08.69347322.png" /></p><p>A slight majority of our readers still work in-house for their own companies, and about a third still work on SEO for their company's clients.</p><p>Interestingly, though, respondents who work for clients deal with many of the same issues as those who work in-house -- especially in trying to convey the value of their work in SEO. They're just trying to send that message to external clients instead of internal stakeholders. More details on that come from our next question:</p><h3>What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?</h3><p>I'm consistently amazed by the time and thought that so many of you put into answering this question, and rest assured, your feedback will be presented to several teams around Moz, both on the marketing and the product sides. For this question, I organized each and every response into recurring themes, tallying each time those themes were mentioned. Here are all the themes that were mentioned 10 or more times:</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover"><thead><tr><th>Challenge</th><th># of mentions</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand the value of SEO</td><td>59</td></tr><tr><td>The industry and tactics are constantly changing; algo updates</td><td>45</td></tr><tr><td>Time constraints</td><td>44</td></tr><tr><td>Link building</td><td>35</td></tr><tr><td>My clients / colleagues / bosses don't understand how SEO works</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>Content (strategy / creation / marketing)</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>Resource constraints</td><td>23</td></tr><tr><td>It's difficult to prove ROI</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>Budget constraints</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>It's a difficult industry in which to learn tools and techniques</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>I regularly need to educate my colleagues / employees</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>It's difficult to prioritize my work</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>My clients either don't have or won't offer sufficient budget / effort</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Effective reporting</td><td>15</td></tr><tr><td>Bureaucracy, red tape, other company problems</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>It's difficult to compete with other companies</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>I'm required to wear multiple hats</td><td>11</td></tr></tbody></table><p>More than anything else, it's patently obvious that one of the greatest difficulties faced by any SEO is explaining it to other people in a way that demonstrates its value while setting appropriate expectations for results. Whether it's your clients, your boss, or your peers that you're trying to convince, it isn't an easy case to make, especially when it's so difficult to show what kind of return a company can see from an investment in SEO.</p><p>We also saw tons of frustrated responses about how the industry is constantly changing, and it takes too much of your already-constrained time just to stay on top of those changes.</p><p>In terms of tactics, link building easily tops the list of challenges. That makes sense, as it's the piece of SEO that relies most heavily on the cooperation of other human beings (and humans are often tricky beings to figure out). =)</p><p>Content marketing -- both the creation/copywriting side as well as the strategy side -- is still a challenge for many folks in the industry, though fewer people mentioned it this year as mentioned it in 2015, so I think we're all starting to get used to how those skills overlap with the more traditional aspects of SEO.</p><hr /><h2>How our readers read</h2><p>With all that context in mind, we started to dig into your preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.</p><h3>How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is the one set of responses that caused a bit of concern. We've seen a steady decrease in the number of people who say they read every day, a slight decrease in the number of people who say they read multiple times each week, and a dramatic increase in the number of people who say they read once a week.</p><p>The 2015 decrease came after an expansion in the scope of subjects we covered on the blog -- as we branched away from just SEO, we published more posts about social media, email, and other aspects of digital marketing. We knew that not all of those subjects were relevant for everyone, so we expected a dip in frequency of readership.</p><p>This year, though, we've attempted to refocus on SEO, and might have expected a bit of a rebound. That didn't happen:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499d8b7175.90795708.png" /></p><p>There are two other factors at play, here. For one thing, we no longer publish a post every single weekday. After our <a href="https://moz.com/blog/publishing-volume-experiment" target="_blank">publishing volume experiment</a> in 2015, we realized it was safe (even beneficial) to emphasize quality over quantity, so if we don't feel like a post turned out the way we hoped, we don't publish it until we've had a chance to improve it. That means we're down to about four posts per week. We've also made a concerted effort to publish more posts about local SEO, as that's relevant to our software and an increasingly important part of the work of folks in our industry.<br /></p><p>It could also be a question of time -- we've already covered how little time everyone in our industry has, and with that problem continuing, there may just be less time to read blog posts.</p><p>If anyone has any additional insight into why they read less often than they once did, please let us know in the comments below!</p><h3>On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?</h3><p>We were surprised by the responses to this answer in 2013, and they've only gotten more extreme:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499dde8812.84201607.png" /></p><p>Nearly everyone prefers to read blog posts on a full computer. Only about 15% of folks add their phones into the equation, and the number of people in all the other buckets is extremely small. In 2013, our blog didn't have a responsive design, and was quite difficult to read on mobile devices. We thought that might have had something to do with people's responses -- maybe they were just <em>used to</em> reading our blog on larger screens. The trend in 2015 and this year, though, proves that's not the case. People just prefer reading posts on their computers, plain and simple.</p><h3>Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?</h3><p>This was a new question for this year. We have our own favorite sites, of course, but we had no idea how the majority of folks would respond to this question. As it turns out, there was quite a broad range of responses listing sites that take very different approaches:</p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover"><thead><tr><th>Site</th><th># responses</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Search Engine Land</td><td>184</td></tr><tr><td>Search Engine Journal</td><td>89</td></tr><tr><td>Search Engine Roundtable</td><td>74</td></tr><tr><td>SEMrush</td><td>51</td></tr><tr><td>Ahrefs</td><td>50</td></tr><tr><td>Search Engine Watch</td><td>41</td></tr><tr><td>Quick Sprout / Neil Patel</td><td>35</td></tr><tr><td>HubSpot</td><td>33</td></tr><tr><td>Backlinko</td><td>31</td></tr><tr><td>Google Blogs</td><td>29</td></tr><tr><td>The SEM Post</td><td>21</td></tr><tr><td>Kissmetrics</td><td>17</td></tr><tr><td>Yoast</td><td>16</td></tr><tr><td>Distilled</td><td>13</td></tr><tr><td>SEO by the Sea</td><td>13</td></tr></tbody></table><p>I suppose it's no surprise that the most prolific sites sit at the top. They've always got something new, even if the stories don't often go into much depth. We've tended to steer our own posts toward longer-form, in-depth pieces, and I think it's safe to say (based on these responses and some to questions below) that it'd be beneficial for us to include some shorter stories, too. In other words, depth shouldn't necessarily be a requisite for a post to be published on the Moz Blog. We may start experimenting with a more "short and sweet" approach to some posts.</p><hr /><h2>What our readers think of the blog</h2><p>Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for you to consume, and more.</p><h3>What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?</h3><p>Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results here, as SEO is a broad enough industry (and we've got a broad enough audience) that there's simply no way we're going to hit the sweet spot for everyone with every post. But those numbers toward the bottom of the chart are low enough that I feel confident we're doing pretty well in terms of topic relevance.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499e498bd5.48952303.png" /></p><h3>Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?</h3><p>Responses to this question have made me smile every time I see them. This is clearly one thing we're getting about as right as we could expect to. We're even seeing a slight balancing of the "too basic" and "too advanced" columns over time, which is great:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499eb82551.03424441.png" /></p><p>We also asked the people who told us that posts were "too basic" or "too advanced" <em>to what extent</em> they felt that way, using a scale from 1-5 (1 being "just a little bit too basic/advanced" and 5 being "way too basic/advanced." The responses tell us that the people who feel posts are too advanced feel <em>more strongly</em> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">about that opinion than the people who feel posts are too basic:</span></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f1f77b7.17557852.png" /></p><p>This makes some sense, I think. If you're just starting out in SEO, which many of our readers are, some of the posts on this blog are likely to go straight over your head. That could be frustrating. If you're an SEO expert, though, you probably aren't <em>frustrated</em> by posts you see as too basic for you -- you just skip past them and move on with your day.</p><p>This does make me think, though, that we might benefit from offering a dedicated section of the site for folks who are just starting out -- more than just the Beginner's Guide. That's actually something that was specifically requested by one respondent this year.</p><h3>In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>While it definitely seems like we're doing pretty well in this regard, I'd also say we've got some room to tighten things up a bit, especially in light of the lack of time so many of you mentioned:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499f9195e1.22264838.png" /></p><p>There were quite a few comments specifically asking for "short and sweet" posts from time to time -- offering up useful tips or news in a format that didn't expound on details because it didn't have to. I think sprinkling some of those types of posts in with the longer-form posts we have so often would be beneficial.</p><h3>Do you ever comment on Moz Blog posts?</h3><p>This was another new question this year. Despite so many sites are removing comment sections from their blogs, we've always believed in their value. Sometimes the discussions we see in comments end up being the most helpful part of the posts, and we value our community too much to keep that from happening. So, we were happy to see a full quarter of respondents have participated in comments:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a26499feae794.57325603.png" /></p><p>We also asked for a bit of info about <em>why</em> you either do or don't comment on posts. The top reasons why you do were pretty predictable -- to ask a clarifying question related to the post, or to offer up your own perspective on the topic at hand. The #3 reason was interesting -- 18 people mentioned that they like to comment in order to thank the author for their hard work. This is a great sentiment, and as someone who's published several posts on this blog, I can say for a fact that it <em>does</em> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">feel pretty great. At the same time, those comments are really only written for one person -- the author -- and are a bit problematic from our perspective, because they add noise around the more substantial conversations, which are what we like to see most.</span></p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I think the solution is going to lie in a new UI element that allows readers to note their appreciation to the authors without leaving one of the oft-maligned "Great post!" comments. There's got to be a happy medium there, and I think it's worth our finding it.</span></p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space">The reasons people gave for <em>not</em> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">commenting were even more interesting. A bunch of people mentioned the need to log in (sorry, folks -- if we didn't require that, we'd spend half our day removing spam!). The most common response, though, involved a lack of confidence. Whether it was worded along the lines of "I'm an introvert" or along the lines of "I just don't have a lot of expertise," there were quite a few people who worried about how their comments would be received.</span></span></p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">I want to take this chance to encourage those of you who feel that way to take the step, and ask questions about points you find confusing. At the very least, I can guarantee you aren't the only ones, and others like you will appreciate your initiative. One of the best ways to develop your expertise is to get comfortable asking questions. We all work in a really confusing industry, and the Moz Blog is all about providing a place to help each other out.</span></span></p><h3>What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?</h3><p>As usual, the responses to this question were chock full of great suggestions, and again, we <em>so</em> appreciate the amount of time you all spent providing really thoughtful feedback.</p><p>One pattern I saw was requests for more empirical data -- hard evidence that things should be done a certain way, whether through case studies or other formats. Another pattern was requests for step-by-step walkthroughs. That makes a lot of sense for an industry of folks who are strapped for time: Make things as clear-cut as possible, and where we can, offer a linear path you can walk down instead of asking you to holistically understand the subject matter, then figure that out on your own. (That's actually something we're hoping to do with our entire Learning Center: Make it easier to figure out where to start, and where to continue after that, instead of putting everything into buckets and asking you all to figure it out.)</p><p>Whiteboard Friday remains a perennial favorite, and we were surprised to see more requests for <em>more</em> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">posts about our own tools than we had requests for <em>fewer</em> <span class="redactor-invisible-space">posts about our own tools. (We've been wary of that in the past, as we wanted to make sure we never crossed from "helpful" into "salesy," something we'll still focus on even if we do add another tool-based post here and there.)</span></span></p><p><span class="redactor-invisible-space"><span class="redactor-invisible-space">We expected a bit of feedback about the format of the emails -- we're absolutely working on that! -- but didn't expect to see so many folks requesting that we bring back YouMoz. That's something that's been on the backs of our minds, and while it may not take the same form it did before, we do plan on finding new ways to encourage the community to contribute content, and hope to have something up and running early in 2018.</span></span></p><table class="table-basic table-row-hover"><thead><tr><th>Request</th><th>#responses</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>More case studies</td><td>26</td></tr><tr><td>More Whiteboard Friday (or other videos)</td><td>25</td></tr><tr><td>More long-form step-by-step training/guides</td><td>18</td></tr><tr><td>Clearer steps to follow in posts; how-tos</td><td>11</td></tr><tr><td>Bring back UGC / YouMoz</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>More from Rand</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>Improve formatting of the emails</td><td>9</td></tr><tr><td>Higher-level, less-technical posts</td><td>8</td></tr><tr><td>More authors</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>More news (algorithm updates, e.g.)</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>Shorter posts, "quick wins"</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>Quizzes, polls, or other engagement opportunities</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>Broader range of topics (engagement, CRO, etc.)</td><td>6</td></tr><tr><td>More about Moz tools</td><td>5</td></tr><tr><td>More data-driven, less opinion-based</td><td>5</td></tr></tbody></table><hr /><h2>What our readers want to see</h2><p>This section is a bit more future-facing, where some of what we asked before had to do with how things have been in the past.</p><h3>Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?</h3><p>There were very, very few surprises in this list. Lots of interest in on-page SEO and link building, as well as other core tactical areas of SEO. Content, branding, and social media all took dips -- that makes sense, given the fact that we don't usually post about those things anymore, and we've no doubt lost some audience members who were more interested in them as a result. Interestingly, mobile took a sizable dip, too. I'd be really curious to know what people think about why that is. My best guess is that with the mobile-first indexing from Google and with responsive designs having become so commonplace, there isn't as much of a need as there once was to think of mobile much <em>differently</em> than there was a couple of years ago. Also of note: When we did this survey in 2015, Google had recently rolled out its "<a href="https://moz.com/blog/9-things-about-googles-mobile-friendly-update" target="_blank">Mobile-Friendly Update</a>," not-so-affectionately referred to by many in the industry as Mobilegeddon. So... it was on our minds. =)</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a05b78f9.08617247.png" /></p><h3>Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?</h3><p>This is a great echo and validation of what we took away from the more general question about what you'd like to see different about the Blog: More tactical posts and step-by-step walkthroughs. Posts that cut to the chase and offer a clear direction forward, as opposed to some of the types at the bottom of this list, which offer more opinions and cerebral explorations:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results/5a2649a0bf1ed5.97491501.png" /></p><hr /><h2>What happens next?</h2><p>Now we go to work. =)</p><p>We'll spend some time fully digesting this info, and coming up with new goals for 2018 aimed at making improvements inspired by your feedback. We'll keep you all apprised as we start moving forward.</p><p>If you have any additional insight that strikes you in taking a look at these results, please do share it in the comments below -- we'd love to have those discussions.</p><p>For now, we've got some initial takeaways that we're already planning to take action on.</p><h3>Primary takeaways</h3><p>There are some relatively obvious things we can take away from these results that we're already working on:</p><ul><li>People in all businesses are finding it quite difficult to communicate the value of SEO to their clients, bosses, and colleagues. That's something we can help with, and we'll be developing materials in the near future to try and alleviate some of that particular frustration.</li><li>There's a real desire for more succinct, actionable, step-by-step walkthroughs on the Blog. We can pretty easily explore formats for posts that are off our "beaten path," and will attempt to make things easier to consume through improvements to both the content itself and its delivery. I think there's some room for more "short and sweet" mixed in with our longer norm.</li><li>The bulk of our audience does more than just SEO, despite a full 25% of them having it in their job titles, and the challenges you mentioned include a bunch of areas that are <em>related to</em>, but outside the traditional world of SEO. Since you all are clearly working on those sorts of things, we should work to highlight and facilitate the relationship between the SEO work and the non-SEO marketing work you do.</li><li>In looking through some of the other sites you all visit for information on SEO, and knowing the kinds of posts they typically publish, it's clear we've got an opportunity to publish more news. We've always dreamed of being more of a one-stop shop for SEO content, and that's good validation that we may want to head down that path.</li></ul><p>Again, thank you all <em>so much</em> for the time and effort you spent filling out this survey. Hopefully you'll notice some changes in the near (and not-so-near) future that make it clear we're really listening.</p><p>If you've got anything to add to these results -- insights, further explanations, questions for clarification, rebuttals of points, etc. -- please leave them in the comments below. We're looking forward to continuing the conversation. =)</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/nYj7I0pIvrc" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/2017-moz-blog-reader-survey-results<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-64329897926695029342017-12-04T14:15:00.001-08:002017-12-04T14:15:34.580-08:00How Local SEO Fits In With What You’re Already Doing<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/13017/&quot;">MiriamEllis</a></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b2ac0909.36022991.jpg" alt="islandfinal.jpg" /></p><p>You own, work for, or market a business, but you don’t think of yourself as a Local SEO.</p><p>That’s okay. The forces of history have, in fact, conspired in some weird ways to make local search seem like an island unto itself. Out there, beyond the horizon, there may be technicians puzzling out NAP, citations, owner responses, duplicate listings, store locator widgets and the like, but it doesn’t seem like they’re talking about <em>your</em> job at all.</p><p>And that’s the problem.</p><p>If I could offer you a seat in my kayak, I’d paddle us over to that misty isle, and we’d go ashore. After we’d walked around a bit, talking to the locals, it would hit you that the language barrier you’d once perceived is a mere illusion, as is the distance between you.</p><p>By sunset — whoa! Look around again. This is no island. You and the Local SEOs are all mainlanders, reaching towards identical goals of <em>customer acquisition, service, and retention</em> via an exceedingly enriched and enriching skill set. You can use it all.</p><p>Before I paddle off into the darkness, under the rising stars, I’d like to leave you a chart that plots out how Local SEO fits in with everything you’ve been doing all along.</p><h2>The roots of the divide</h2><p>Why is Local SEO often treated as separate from the rest of marketing? We can narrow this down to three contributing factors:</p><h3>1) Early separation of the local and organic algos</h3><p>Google’s early-days local product was governed by an algorithm that was much more distinct from their organic algorithm than it is today. It was once extremely common, for example, for businesses without websites to rank well locally. This didn’t do much to form clear bridges between the offline, organic, and local marketing worlds. But, then came <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-pigeon" target="_blank">Google’s Pigeon Update</a> in 2013, which signaled Google’s stated intention of deeply tying the two algorithms together.</p><p>This should ultimately impact the way industry publications, SaaS companies, and agencies present local as an extension of organic SEO, but we’re not quite there yet. I continue to encounter examples of large companies which are doing an amazing job with their website strategies, their e-commerce solutions and their paid outreach, but which are only now taking their first steps into local listings management for their hundreds of physical locations. It’s not that they’re late to the party — it’s just that they’ve only recently begun to realize what a large party their customers are having with their brands’ location data layers on the web.</p><h3>2) Inheriting the paid vs. organic dichotomy</h3><p>Local SEO has experienced the same lack-of-adoption/awareness as organic SEO. Agencies have long fought the uphill battle against a lopsided dependence on paid advertising. This phenomenon is <a href="https://moz.com/blog/the-disconnect-in-ppc-vs-seo-spending" target="_blank">highlighted by historic stats like these</a> showing brands investing some $10 million in PPC vs. $1 million in SEO, despite <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/randfish/inside-googles-numbers-in-2017" target="_blank">studies like this one</a> which show PPC earning less than 10% of clicks in search.</p><p>My take on this is that the transition from traditional offline paid advertising to its online analog was initially easier for many brands to get their heads around. And there have been ongoing challenges in proving direct ROI from SEO in the simple terms a PPC campaign can provide. To this day, we’re still all seeing statistics like only <a href="https://www.bluecorona.com/blog/29-small-business-digital-marketing-statistics" target="_blank">17% of small businesses investing in SEO</a>. In many ways, the SEO conundrum has simply been inherited by every Local SEO.</p><h3>3) A lot to take in and on</h3><p>Look at the service menu of any full-service digital marketing agency and you’ll see just how far it’s had to stretch over the past couple of decades to encompass an ever-expanding range of publicity opportunities:</p><ul><li>Technical website audits</li><li>On-site optimization</li><li>Linkbuilding</li><li>Keyword research</li><li>Content dev and promotion</li><li>Brand building</li><li>Social media marketing</li><li>PPC management</li><li>UX audits</li><li>Conversion optimization</li><li>Etc.</li></ul><p>Is it any wonder that agencies feel spread a bit too thin when considering how to support yet further needs and disciplines? How do you find the bandwidth, and the experts, to be able to offer:</p><ul><li>Ongoing citation management</li><li>Local on-site SEO</li><li>Local landing page dev</li><li>Store locator SEO</li><li>Review management</li><li>Local brand building</li><li>Local link building</li><li>And abstruse forms of local Schema implementation...</li></ul><p>And while many agencies have met the challenge by forming smart, strategic partnerships with providers specializing in Local SEO solutions, the agency is still then tasked with understanding how Local fits in with everything else they’re doing, and then explaining this to clients. At the multi-location and enterprise level, even amongst the best-known brands, high-level staffers may have no idea what it is the folks in the in-house Local SEO department are actually doing, or <em>why their work matters</em>.</p><p>To tie it all together … that’s what we need to do here. With a shared vision of how all practitioners are working on consumer-centric outreach, we can really get somewhere. Let’s plot this out, together:</p><h2>Sharing is caring</h2><blockquote>“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It's our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”<br />- Jeff Bezos, Amazon</blockquote><p>Let’s imagine a sporting goods brand, established in 1979, that’s grown to 400 locations across the US while also becoming well-known for its e-commerce presence. Whether aspects of marketing are being outsourced or it’s all in-house, here is how 3 shared consumer-centric goals unify all parties.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/the-local-seo-illusion/5a24a0b32606d7.23259649.jpg" alt="sharedgoalsfinal.jpg" /></p><p>As we can see from the above chart, there is definitely an overlap of techniques, particularly between SEOs and Local SEOs. Yet overall, it’s not the language or tactics, but the end game and end goals that unify all parties. <em>Viewed properly, consumers are what make all marketing a true team effort.</em></p><h2>Before I buy that kayak…</h2><p>On my commute, I hear a radio ad promoting a holiday sale at some sporting goods store, but which brand was it?</p><p>Then I turn to the Internet to research kayak brands, and I find your website’s nicely researched, written, and optimized article comparing the best models in 2017. It’s ranking #2 organically. Those Sun Dolphins look pretty good, according to your massive comparison chart.</p><p>I think about it for a couple of days and go looking again, and I see your Adwords spot advertising your 30% off sale. <em>This is the third time I’ve encountered your brand</em>.</p><p>On my day off, I’m doing a local search for your brand, which has impressed me so far. I’m ready to look at these kayaks in person. Thanks to the fact that you properly managed your recent move across town by updating all of your major citations, I’m finding an accurate address on your Google My Business listing. Your reviews are mighty favorable, too. They keep mentioning how knowledgeable the staff is at your location nearest me.</p><p>And that turns out to be true. At first, I’m disappointed that I don’t see any Sun Dolphins on your shelves — your website comparison chart spoke well of them. As a sales associate approaches me, I notice in-store signage above his head, featuring a text/phone hotline for complaints. I don’t really have a complaint… not yet… but it’s good to know you care.</p><p>“I’m so sorry. We just sold out of Sun Dolphins this morning. But we can have one delivered to you within 3 days. We have in-store pickup, too,” the salesperson says. “Or, maybe you’d be interested in another model with comparable features. Let me show you.”</p><p>Turns out, your staffer isn’t just helpful — his training has made him so well-versed in your product line that he’s able to match my needs to a perfect kayak for me. I end up buying an Intex on the spot.</p><p>The cashier double-checks with me that I’ve found everything satisfactory and lets me know your brand takes feedback very seriously. She says my review would be valued, and my receipt invites me to read your reviews on Google, Yelp, and Facebook… and offers a special deal for signing up for your email newsletter.</p><p>My subsequent 5-star review signals to all departments of your company that a company-wide goal was met. Over the next year, my glowing review also influences 20 of my local neighbors to choose you over a competitor.</p><p>After my first wet, cold, and exciting kayaking trip, I realize I need to invest in a better waterproof jacket for next time. Your email newsletter hits my inbox at just the right time, announcing your Fourth of July sale. I’m about to become a repeat customer… <a href="https://www.helpscout.net/75-customer-service-facts-quotes-statistics/" target="_blank">worth up to 10x the value of my first purchase</a>.</p><blockquote><em>“No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”<br />- Reid Hoffman, Co-Founder of LinkedIn</em></blockquote><p>There’s a kind of magic in this adventurous mix of marketing wins. Subtract anything from the picture, <em>and you may miss out on the customer.</em> It’s been said that great teams beat with a single heart. The secret lies in seeing every marketing discipline and practitioner as part of <em>your</em> team, doing what your brand has been doing all along: working with dedication to acquire, serve and retain consumers. Whether achievement comes via citation management, conversion optimization, or a write-up in the New York Times, the end goal is identical.</p><p>It’s also long been said that the race is to the swift. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch appears to agree, stating that, in today’s world, it’s not big that beats small — it’s fast that beats slow. How quickly your brand is able to integrate all forms of on-and-offline marketing into its core strategy, leaving no team as an island, may well be what writes your future.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/l8DkB_v8ONM" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/the-local-seo-illusion<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-23329251495290188172017-12-04T09:52:00.001-08:002017-12-04T09:52:48.672-08:00Renderizar páginas de rastreo con AJAX<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /><span id="docs-internal-guid-34228f81-227e-1902-da29-f0cf833f461c"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-34228f81-227e-1902-da29-f0cf833f461c"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">El</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151201031357/https://developers.google.com/webmasters/ajax-crawling/docs/learn-more" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">esquema de rastreo con AJAX</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">se diseñó con el objetivo de que el robot de Google pudiera acceder a las páginas web basadas en JavaScript. Como hemos anunciado anteriormente,</span> <a href="https://webmaster-es.googleblog.com/2015/11/desactivacion-del-esquema-de-rastreo-de.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">tenemos previsto desactivarlo</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Con el tiempo, los ingenieros de Google han mejorado de forma significativa cómo se renderiza JavaScript para que el robot de Google pueda rastrearlo. Gracias a estos avances, a partir del segundo trimestre del 2018 Google se encargará de renderizar estas páginas, en lugar de que tengan que hacerlo los sitios web. En resumen, dejaremos de usar el esquema de rastreo con AJAX.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">El esquema de rastreo con AJAX admite páginas que contienen "#!" en la URL o bien una</span> <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20151101113107/https://developers.google.com/webmasters/ajax-crawling/docs/getting-started#3-handle-pages-without-hash-fragments" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">metaetiqueta "fragment"</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">y, a continuación, los rastrea incluyendo "?_escaped_fragment_=" en la URL. Esa versión con caracteres de escape, creada por el sitio web, tiene que ser una versión completa o equivalente de la página.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Con este cambio, el robot de Google renderizará la URL que contiene #! directamente, por lo que no será necesario que el propietario del sitio web proporcione una versión renderizada de la página. Estas URL se seguirán incluyendo en los resultados de búsqueda.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Esperamos que la mayoría de los sitios web que se rastrean con AJAX no experimenten cambios importantes con esta actualización. Los webmasters pueden comprobar sus páginas siguiendo las instrucciones a continuación. Enviaremos notificaciones a los sitios web que detectemos que pueden tener problemas.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Si tu sitio web usa URLs que contienen #! o metaetiquetas "fragment", te recomendamos que hagas lo siguiente:</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">● Verifica la propiedad del sitio web en</span> <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google Search Console</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">para acceder a sus herramientas y para que Google te pueda enviar notificaciones sobre los problemas que encuentre.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">●&nbsp;Haz pruebas con la herramienta</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6066468?hl=es" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Explorar como Google</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">de Search Console. Compara los resultados de la URL que contiene #! y la URL con caracteres de escape para ver las diferencias. Repite este proceso con cualquier parte del sitio web que sea notablemente distinta. Consulta nuestra</span> <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/rendering" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">documentación para desarrolladores</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">para obtener más información sobre las API admitidas y, si es necesario, consulta nuestra</span> <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/debug-rendering" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">guía de depuración</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">● Con la función para</span> <a href="https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/inspect-styles/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inspeccionar elementos</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">de Chrome, comprueba que los enlaces utilizan</span> <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/es/docs/Web/HTML/Elemento/a" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">elementos HTML &lt;a&gt;</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e incluyen</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rel=nofollow</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">donde corresponde (por ejemplo, en contenido generado por usuarios).</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">● Con la función para</span> <a href="https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/inspect-styles/" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">inspeccionar elementos</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">de Chrome, comprueba</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35624" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">el título de la página y la metaetiqueta "description"</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, si hay metaetiquetas "robot" y otros metadatos. Comprueba también que los</span> <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/guides/intro-structured-data" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">datos estructurados</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">estén disponibles en la página renderizada.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">● Si el contenido debe indexarse en la búsqueda, el contenido creado con Flash, Silverlight u otras tecnologías basadas en complementos debe convertirse a JavaScript o HTML "normal".</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Esperamos que este cambio facilite el proceso para rastrear tu sitio web y evite en la medida de lo posible que tengas que renderizar páginas. Si tienes cualquier pregunta o comentario, no dudes en consultar nuestros</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/go/community" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">foros de ayuda para webmasters</span></a> <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">o unirte a nuestro</span> <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/js-sites-wg" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">grupo de trabajo de sitios web de JavaScript</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Escrito por John Mueller, Google Suiza, publicado por Joan Ortiz, equipo de calidad de búsqueda.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ElBlogParaWebmasters/~4/MJ1znTS0ZaQ" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from El Blog para Webmasters http://webmaster-es.googleblog.com/2017/12/renderizar-paginas-de-rastreo-con-ajax.html<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-66511401548177998122017-12-01T14:13:00.001-08:002017-12-01T14:13:12.279-08:00Designing a Page's Content Flow to Maximize SEO Opportunity - Whiteboard Friday<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/63/&quot;">randfish</a></p><p>Controlling and improving the flow of your on-site content can actually help your SEO. What's the best way to capitalize on the opportunity present in your page design? Rand covers the questions you need to ask (and answer) and the goals you should strive for in today's Whiteboard Friday.</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/s9ad0z1eee?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe></p><script rel="display: none;" src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/designing-a-page-s-content-flow-to-maximize-seo-opportunity-whiteboard-friday/5a209b654369e7.88708807.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/designing-a-page-s-content-flow-to-maximize-seo-opportunity-whiteboard-friday/5a209b654369e7.88708807.jpg" alt="Designing a page's content flow to maximize SEO opportunity" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!</p><iframe width="100%" height="100" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/363558659&amp;color=%23ff5500&amp;auto_play=false&amp;hide_related=false&amp;show_comments=true&amp;show_user=true&amp;show_reposts=false&amp;show_teaser=true">&amp;amp;amp;lt;span id="selection-marker-1" class="redactor-selection-marker"&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/span&amp;amp;amp;gt;</iframe><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about a designing a page's content flow to help with your SEO.<br /><br />Now, unfortunately, somehow in the world of SEO tactics, this one has gotten left by the wayside. I think a lot of people in the SEO world are investing in things like content and solving searchers' problems and getting to the bottom of searcher intent. But unfortunately, the page design and the flow of the elements, the UI elements, the content elements that sit in a page is discarded or left aside. That's unfortunate because it can actually make a huge difference to your SEO.</p><h2>Q: What needs to go on this page, in what order, with what placement?</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-3-210844.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>So if we're asking ourselves like, "Well, what's the question here?" Well, it's what needs to go on this page. I'm trying to rank for "faster home Wi-Fi." Right now, Lifehacker and a bunch of other people are ranking in these results. It gets a ton of searches. I can drive a lot of revenue for my business if I can rank there. But what needs to go on this page in what order with what placement in order for me to perform the best that I possibly can? It turns out that sometimes great content gets buried in a poor page design and poor page flow. But if we want to answer this question, we actually have to ask some other ones. We need answers to at least these three:</p><p><strong>A. What is the searcher in this case trying to accomplish?</strong></p><p>When they enter "faster home Wi-Fi," what's the task that they want to get done?</p><p><strong>B. Are there multiple intents behind this query, and which ones are most popular?</strong></p><p>What's the popularity of those intents in what order? We need to know that so that we can design our flow around the most common ones first and the secondary and tertiary ones next.</p><p><strong>C. What's the business goal of ranking? What are we trying to accomplish?</strong></p><p>That's always going to have to be balanced out with what is the searcher trying to accomplish. Otherwise, in a lot of cases, there's no point in ranking at all. If we can't get our goals met, we should just rank for something else where we can.</p><h2>Let's assume we've got some answers:</h2><p>Let's assume that, in this case, we have some good answers to these questions so we can proceed. So pretty simple. If I search for "faster home Wi-Fi," what I want is usually it's going to be...</p><p><strong>A. Faster download speed at home.</strong></p><p>That's what the searcher is trying to accomplish. But there are multiple intents behind this. Sometimes the searcher is looking to do that..</p><p><strong>B1. With their current ISP and their current equipment.</strong></p><p>They want to know things they can optimize that don't cause them to spend money. Can they place their router in different places? Can they change out a cable? Do they need to put it in a different room? Do they need to move their computer? Is the problem something else that's interfering with their Wi-Fi in their home that they need to turn off? Those kinds of issues.</p><p><strong>B2. With a new ISP.</strong></p><p>Or can they get a new ISP? They might be looking for an ISP that can provide them with faster home internet in their area, and they want to know what's available, which is a very different intent than the first one.</p><p><strong>B3. With current ISP but new equipment.</strong></p><p>maybe they want to keep their ISP, but they are willing to upgrade to new equipment. So they're looking for what's the equipment that I could buy that would make the current ISP I have, which in many cases in the United States, sadly, there's only one ISP that can provide you with service in a lot of areas. So they can't change ISP, but they can change out their equipment.</p><p><strong>C. Affiliate revenue with product referrals.</strong></p><p>Let's assume that (C) is we know that what we're trying to accomplish is affiliate revenue from product referrals. So our business is basically we're going to send people to new routers or the Google Mesh Network home device, and we get affiliate revenue by passing folks off to those products and recommending them.</p><h2>Now we can design a content flow.</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/untitled-2-107471.jpg" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Okay, fair enough. We now have enough to be able to take care of this design flow. The design flow can involve lots of things. There are a lot of things that could live on a page, everything from navigation to headline to the lead-in copy or the header image or body content, graphics, reference links, the footer, a sidebar potentially.</p><p>The elements that go in here are not actually what we're talking about today. We can have that conversation too. I want a headline that's going to tell people that I serve all of these different intents. I want to have a lead-in that has a potential to be the featured snippet in there. I want a header image that can rank in image results and be in the featured snippet panel. I'm going to want body content that serves all of these in the order that's most popular. I want graphics and visuals that suggest to people that I've done my research and I can provably show that the results that you get with this different equipment or this different ISP will be relevant to them.</p><p>But really, what we're talking about here is the flow that matters. The content itself, the problem is that it gets buried. What I see many times is folks will take a powerful visual or a powerful piece of content that's solving the searcher's query and they'll put it in a place on the page where it's hard to access or hard to find. So even though they've actually got great content, it is buried by the page's design.</p><h2>5 big goals that matter.</h2><p>The goals that matter here and the ones that you should be optimizing for when you're thinking about the design of this flow are:</p><p><strong>1. How do I solve the searcher's task quickly and enjoyably?</strong></p><p>So that's about user experience as well as the UI. I know that, for many people, they are going to want to see and, in fact, the result that's ranking up here on the top is Lifehacker's top 10 list for how to get your home Wi-Fi faster. They include things like upgrading your ISP, and here's a tool to see what's available in your area. They include maybe you need a better router, and here are the best ones. Maybe you need a different network or something that expands your network in your home, and here's a link out to those. So they're serving that purpose up front, up top.</p><p><strong>2. Serve these multiple intents in the order of demand.</strong></p><p>So if we can intuit that most people want to stick with their ISP, but are willing to change equipment, we can serve this one first (B3). We can serve this one second (B1), and we can serve the change out my ISP third (B2), which is actually the ideal fit in this scenario for us. That helps us</p><p><strong>3. Optimize for the business goal without sacrificing one and two.</strong></p><p>I would urge you to design generally with the searcher in mind and if you can fit in the business goal, that is ideal. Otherwise, what tends to happen is the business goal comes first, the searcher comes second, and you come tenth in the results.</p><p><strong>4. If possible, try to claim the featured snippet and the visual image that go up there.</strong></p><p>That means using the lead-in up at the top. It's usually the first paragraph or the first few lines of text in an ordered or unordered list, along with a header image or visual in order to capture that featured snippet. That's very powerful for search results that are still showing it.</p><p><strong>5. Limit our bounce back to the SERP as much as possible.</strong></p><p>In many cases, this means limiting some of the UI or design flow elements that hamper people from solving their problems or that annoy or dissuade them. So, for example, advertising that pops up or overlays that come up before I've gotten two-thirds of the way down the page really tend to hamper efforts, really tend to increase this bounce back to the SERP, the search engine call pogo-sticking and can harm your rankings dramatically. Design elements, design flows where the content that actually solves the problem is below an advertising block or below a promotional block, that also is very limiting.</p><p>So to the degree that we can control the design of our pages and optimize for that, we can actually take existing content that you might already have and improve its rankings without having to remake it, without needing new links, simply by improving the flow.</p><p>I hope we'll see lots of examples of those in the comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/DDV0w9zu_JE" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/page-content-flow-to-maximize-seo<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-51240551526204450642017-11-29T15:08:00.001-08:002017-11-29T15:08:22.475-08:00The Complete Guide to Direct Traffic in Google Analytics<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/10671287/&quot;">tombennet</a></p><p>When it comes to direct traffic in Analytics, there are two deeply entrenched misconceptions.</p><p>The first is that it’s caused almost exclusively by users typing an address into their browser (or clicking on a bookmark). The second is that it’s a <em>Bad Thing</em>, not because it has any overt negative impact on your site’s performance, but rather because it’s somehow immune to further analysis. The prevailing attitude amongst digital marketers is that direct traffic is an unavoidable inconvenience; as a result, discussion of direct is typically limited to ways of attributing it to other channels, or side-stepping the issues associated with it.</p><p>In this article, we’ll be taking a fresh look at direct traffic in modern Google Analytics. As well as exploring the myriad ways in which referrer data can be lost, we’ll look at some tools and tactics you can start using immediately to reduce levels of direct traffic in your reports. Finally, we’ll discover how advanced analysis and segmentation can unlock the mysteries of direct traffic and shed light on what might actually be your most valuable users.</p><h2>What is direct traffic?</h2><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df786c3fd42.13567253.png" /></p><p>In short, Google Analytics will report a traffic source of "direct" when it has no data on how the session arrived at your website, or when the referring source has been configured to be ignored. You can think of direct as GA’s fall-back option for when its processing logic has failed to attribute a session to a particular source.</p><p>To properly understand the causes and fixes for direct traffic, it’s important to understand exactly how GA processes traffic sources. The following flow-chart illustrates how sessions are bucketed — note that direct sits right at the end as a final "catch-all" group.</p><p class="full-width"><a href="https://i.imgur.com/oFXDXsn.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/campaign-processing-final-422987.jpg" alt="" /></a></p><p>Broadly speaking, and disregarding user-configured overrides, GA’s processing follows this sequence of checks:</p><p><em>AdWords parameters &gt; Campaign overrides &gt; UTM campaign parameters &gt; Referred by a search engine &gt; Referred by another website &gt; Previous campaign within timeout period &gt; Direct</em></p><p>Note the penultimate processing step (<em>previous campaign within timeout</em>), which has a significant impact on the direct channel. Consider a user who discovers your site via organic search, then returns via direct a week later. Both sessions would be attributed to organic search. In fact, campaign data persists for up to six months by default. The key point here is that Google Analytics is already trying to minimize the impact of direct traffic for you.</p><h2>What causes direct traffic?</h2><p>Contrary to popular belief, there are actually many reasons why a session might be missing campaign and traffic source data. Here we will run through some of the most common.</p><h3>1. Manual address entry and bookmarks</h3><p>The classic direct-traffic scenario, this one is largely unavoidable. If a user types a URL into their browser’s address bar or clicks on a browser bookmark, that session will appear as direct traffic.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df78734a5a1.86359518.png" /></p><p>Simple as that.</p><h3>2. HTTPS &gt; HTTP</h3><p>When a user follows a link on a secure (HTTPS) page to a non-secure (HTTP) page, no referrer data is passed, meaning the session appears as direct traffic instead of as a referral. Note that this is intended behavior. It’s part of how the secure protocol was designed, and it does not affect other scenarios: HTTP to HTTP, HTTPS to HTTPS, and even HTTP to HTTPS all pass referrer data.</p><p>So, if your referral traffic has tanked but direct has spiked, it could be that one of your major referrers has migrated to HTTPS. The inverse is also true: If you’ve migrated to HTTPS and are linking to HTTP websites, the traffic you’re driving to them will appear in <em>their</em> Analytics as direct.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7878599b4.33289691.png" />If your referrers have moved to HTTPS and you’re stuck on HTTP, you really ought to consider migrating to HTTPS. Doing so (and updating your backlinks to point to HTTPS URLs) will bring back any referrer data which is being stripped from cross-protocol traffic. SSL certificates can now be obtained for free thanks to automated authorities like <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/" target="_blank">LetsEncrypt</a>, but that’s not to say you should neglect to explore the potentially-significant SEO implications of <a href="https://moz.com/blog/no-such-thing-as-a-site-migration" target="_blank">site migrations</a>. Remember, HTTPS and HTTP/2 are the future of the web.</p><p>If, on the other hand, you’ve already migrated to HTTPS and are concerned about your users appearing to partner websites as direct traffic, you can implement the meta referrer tag. Cyrus Shepard has <a href="https://moz.com/blog/meta-referrer-tag" target="_blank">written about this on Moz</a> before, so I won’t delve into it now. Suffice to say, it’s a way of telling browsers to pass <em>some</em> referrer data to non-secure sites, and can be <a href="https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/Referrer-Policy">implemented</a> as a &lt;meta&gt; element or HTTP header.</p><h3>3. Missing or broken tracking code</h3><p>Let’s say you’ve launched a new landing page template and forgotten to include the GA tracking code. Or, to use a scenario I’m encountering more and more frequently, imagine your GTM container is a horrible mess of poorly configured triggers, and your tracking code is simply failing to fire.</p><p>Users land on this page without tracking code. They click on a link to a deeper page which <em>does</em> have tracking code. From GA’s perspective, the first hit of the session is the second page visited, meaning that the referrer appears as your own website (i.e. a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6350128?hl=en" target="_blank">self-referral</a>). If your domain is on the referral exclusion list (as per default configuration), the session is bucketed as direct. This will happen even if the first URL is tagged with UTM campaign parameters.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df787ea2ef6.09255866.png" /></p><p>As a short-term fix, you can try to repair the damage by simply adding the missing tracking code. To prevent it happening again, carry out a thorough <a href="https://builtvisible.com/analytics-auditing/" target="_blank">Analytics audit</a>, move to a GTM-based tracking implementation, and promote a culture of data-driven marketing.</p><h3>4. Improper redirection</h3><p>This is an easy one. Don’t use meta refreshes or JavaScript-based redirects — these can wipe or replace referrer data, leading to direct traffic in Analytics. You should also be meticulous with your server-side redirects, and — as is often recommended by SEOs — audit your redirect file frequently. Complex chains are more likely to result in a loss of referrer data, and you run the risk of UTM parameters getting stripped out.</p><p>Once again, control what you can: use carefully mapped (i.e. non-chained) code 301 server-side redirects to preserve referrer data wherever possible.</p><h3>5. Non-web documents</h3><p>Links in Microsoft Word documents, slide decks, or PDFs do not pass referrer information. By default, users who click these links will appear in your reports as direct traffic. Clicks from native mobile apps (particularly those with embedded "in-app" browsers) are similarly prone to stripping out referrer data.</p><p>To a degree, this is unavoidable. Much like so-called “dark social” visits (discussed in detail below), non-web links will inevitably result in some quantity of direct traffic. However, you also have an opportunity here to <em>control the controllables.</em></p><p>If you publish whitepapers or offer downloadable PDF guides, for example, you should be tagging the embedded hyperlinks with <a href="https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/" target="_blank">UTM campaign parameters</a>. You’d never even contemplate launching an email marketing campaign without campaign tracking (I hope), so why would you distribute any other kind of freebie without similarly tracking its success? In some ways this is even <em>more</em> important, since these kinds of downloadables often have a longevity not seen in a single email campaign. Here’s an example of a properly tagged URL which we would embed as a link:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://builtvisible.com/embedded-whitepaper-url/?utm_source=whitepaper&amp;utm">https://builtvisible.com/embedded-whitepaper-url/?...</a>_medium=offline_document&amp;utm_campaign=201711_utm_whitepaper</p><p>The same goes for URLs in your <em>offline</em> marketing materials. For major campaigns it’s common practice to select a short, memorable URL (e.g. moz.com/tv/) and design an entirely new landing page. It’s possible to bypass page creation altogether: simply redirect the vanity URL to an existing page URL which is properly tagged with UTM parameters.</p><p>So, whether you tag your URLs directly, use redirected vanity URLs, or — if you think UTM parameters are ugly — opt for some crazy-ass hash-fragment solution with GTM (<a href="https://builtvisible.com/one-weird-trick-to-avoid-utm-parameters/" target="_blank">read more here</a>), the takeaway is the same: use campaign parameters wherever it’s appropriate to do so.</p><h3>6. “Dark social”</h3><p>This is a big one, and probably the least well understood by marketers.</p><p>The term “dark social” was first coined back in 2012 by Alexis Madrigal in <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/10/dark-social-we-have-the-whole-history-of-the-web-wrong/263523/" target="_blank">an article for The Atlantic</a>. Essentially it refers to methods of social sharing which cannot easily be attributed to a particular source, like email, instant messaging, Skype, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.</p><p><a href="https://radiumone.com/darksocial/" target="_blank">Recent studies</a> have found that upwards of 80% of consumers’ outbound sharing from publishers’ and marketers’ websites now occurs via these private channels. In terms of numbers of active users, messaging apps are <em>outpacing</em> social networking apps. All the activity driven by these thriving platforms is typically bucketed as direct traffic by web analytics software.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df788741f31.91792226.png" /></p><p>People who use the ambiguous phrase “social media marketing” are typically referring to <em>advertising</em>: you broadcast your message and hope people will listen. Even if you overcome consumer indifference with a well-targeted campaign, any subsequent interactions are affected by their very public nature. The privacy of dark social, by contrast, represents a potential goldmine of intimate, targeted, and relevant interactions with high conversion potential. Nebulous and difficult-to-track though it may be, dark social has the potential to let marketers tap into elusive power of <em>word of mouth</em>.</p><p>So, how can we minimize the amount of dark social traffic which is bucketed under direct? The unfortunate truth is that there is no magic bullet: proper attribution of dark social requires rigorous campaign tracking. The optimal approach will vary greatly based on your industry, audience, proposition, and so on. For many websites, however, a good first step is to provide convenient and properly configured sharing buttons for private platforms like email, WhatsApp, and Slack, thereby ensuring that users share URLs appended with UTM parameters (or vanity/shortened URLs which redirect to the same). This will go some way towards shining a light on <em>part</em> of your dark social traffic.</p><h2>Checklist: Minimizing direct traffic</h2><p>To summarize what we’ve already discussed, here are the steps you can take to minimize the level of unnecessary direct traffic in your reports:</p><ol><li>Migrate to HTTPS: Not only is the secure protocol your gateway to HTTP/2 and the future of the web, it will also have an enormously positive effect on your ability to track referral traffic.</li><li>Manage your use of redirects: Avoid chains and eliminate client-side redirection in favour of carefully-mapped, single-hop, server-side 301s. If you use vanity URLs to redirect to pages with UTM parameters, be meticulous.</li><li>Get really good at campaign tagging: Even amongst data-driven marketers I encounter the belief that UTM begins and ends with switching on automatic tagging in your email marketing software. Others go to the other extreme, doing silly things like tagging internal links. Control what you can, and your ability to carry out meaningful attribution will markedly improve.</li><li>Conduct an Analytics audit: Data integrity is vital, so consider this essential when assessing the success of your marketing. It’s not simply a case of checking for missing track code: good audits involve a review of your measurement plan and rigorous testing at page and property-level.</li></ol><p>Adhere to these principles, and it’s often possible to achieve a dramatic reduction in the level of direct traffic reported in Analytics. The following example involved an HTTPS migration, GTM migration (as part of an Analytics review), and an overhaul of internal campaign tracking processes over the course of about 6 months:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7892938f9.72562485.png" /></p><p>But the saga of direct traffic doesn’t end there! Once this channel is “clean” — that is, once you’ve minimized the number of avoidable pollutants — what remains might actually be one of your most valuable traffic segments.</p><h2>Analyze! Or: why direct traffic can actually be pretty cool</h2><p>For reasons we’ve already discussed, traffic from bookmarks and dark social is an enormously valuable segment to analyze. These are likely to be some of your most loyal and engaged users, and it’s not uncommon to see a notably higher conversion rate for a clean direct channel compared to the site average. You should make the effort to get to know them.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics/5a1df7898e1021.58268901.png" /></p><p>The number of potential avenues to explore is infinite, but here are some good starting points:</p><ul><li>Build meaningful custom segments, defining a subset of your direct traffic based on their landing page, location, device, repeat visit or purchase behavior, or even enhanced e-commerce interactions.</li><li>Track meaningful engagement metrics using modern GTM triggers such as <a href="https://builtvisible.com/tracking-element-visibility-with-gtm/" target="_blank">element visibility and native scroll tracking</a>. Measure <em>how</em> your direct users are using and viewing your content.</li><li>Watch for correlations with your other marketing activities, and use it as an opportunity to refine your tagging practices and segment definitions. Create a <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033021?hl=en" target="_blank">custom alert</a> which watches for spikes in direct traffic.</li><li>Familiarize yourself with flow reports to get an understanding of how your direct traffic is converting. By using Goal Flow and Behavior Flow reports with segmentation, it’s often possible to glean actionable insights which can be applied to the site as a whole.</li><li>Ask your users for help! If you’ve isolated a valuable segment of traffic which eludes deeper analysis, add a button to the page offering visitors a free downloadable ebook if they tell you how they discovered your page.</li><li>Start thinking about lifetime value, if you haven’t already — overhauling your attribution model or implementing <a href="https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3123662?hl=en" target="_blank">User ID</a> are good steps towards overcoming the indifference or frustration felt by marketers towards direct traffic.</li></ul><p>I hope this guide has been useful. With any luck, you arrived looking for ways to reduce the level of direct traffic in your reports, and left with some new ideas for how to better analyze this valuable segment of users.</p><p>Thanks for reading!</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/IMLT-n7SO4Y" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/guide-to-direct-traffic-google-analytics<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-50981022139942012782017-11-29T03:39:00.001-08:002017-11-29T03:39:14.668-08:00Innovaciones de Google AdWords que mejorarán los resultados de tu empresa<span id="docs-internal-guid-0f49ae37-0782-3f3e-0ff6-9da19b28b26d"></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-0f49ae37-0782-3f3e-0ff6-9da19b28b26d"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Innovaciones de Google&nbsp;AdWords que mejorarán los resultados de tu empresa</span></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Los consumidores son más curiosos, exigentes e impacientes que nunca,</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">especialmente en Navidades. Hemos</span> <a href="https://adwords.googleblog.com/2016/03/redesigning-adwords-for-the-mobile-first-marketer.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">rediseñado</span></a> <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google AdWords para que puedas llegar de forma rápida y sencilla a estos consumidores que compran principalmente a través de sus dispositivos móviles. Actualmente,</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">estamos introduciendo innovaciones que solo están disponibles en la</span> <a href="https://adwords.google.com/home/how-it-works/new-adwords/#?modal_active=none" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nueva experiencia</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Con estos productos conseguirás ahorrar tiempo y mejorar tu rendimiento en cualquier iniciativa que emprendas, desde promocionar tus últimas ofertas hasta encontrar formas de ampliar tu negocio. A continuación, te contamos cómo algunos anunciantes han conseguido aumentar el porcentaje de conversiones y el retorno de la inversión publicitaria tras aplicar estas innovaciones en sus campañas.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Destaca tus principales ofertas con extensiones de promoción</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Los usuarios siempre están buscando ofertas, ya sean descuentos en regalos de Navidad o vuelos más económicos. De hecho, siete de cada diez usuarios de Internet buscan ofertas o descuentos antes de visitar una tienda.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">1</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Para ayudarte a atraer estos clientes con tus últimas ofertas,</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">te presentamos las extensiones de promoción.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="478" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/VojcTnLtYau6bUB4lBrGqrXWR96LcR-Fkgq6u74K9kNXaxJs7yEtaWDuADzr5i5P7apOifb7TjgeKxzRS1ZPphAQ8H521VEKNmwdY-7dC4wPmA7PR3DjjHIZyjSNEsV0YDSYXdIQpK3aN5spOw" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="389" /></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Muestra tus últimas ofertas con las extensiones de promoción</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Con las</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7367521?utm_source=inside_adwords&amp;utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_campaign=AWN_innovations_post" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">extensiones de promoción</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">podrás tener tus promociones siempre al día sin necesidad de crear más anuncios. En el espacio restante podrás incluir contenido más específico, como tus términos de marca o una llamada a la acción clara.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supongamos que tienes una zapatería y quieres usar las extensiones de promoción para mostrar un código promocional del 30&nbsp;% de descuento en todos tus pedidos de Black Friday. Puedes destacar aún más este tipo de ofertas de temporada en los anuncios seleccionando uno de los doce tipos de promociones especiales, como Black Friday o Vuelta al cole.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://adwords.google.com/home/resources/success-stories/torrid.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Torrid</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">y</span> <a href="https://adwords.google.com/home/resources/success-stories/shoe-carnival.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Shoe Carnival</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">son algunas de las marcas que ya han conseguido excelentes resultados con las extensiones de promoción:</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-left: 1pt;"><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="171" /><col width="453" /></colgroup><tbody><tr style="height: 93pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-left: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-right: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-top: solid #ffffff 1pt; padding: 5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt; vertical-align: top;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="78" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/uwFIs636SAna1335jZwYdjClc00ji9k1oiHgV-UYwRrEseQXRjwCKv4BHr5KXtClcuU0izVH-lfpOemqno80ej5vTf9ALUPyZzHWI7rYVckueVhAHi08ZaqID2IYby9b0JDU6HazhGNBZOq-NQ" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="155" /></span></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-left: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-right: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-top: solid #ffffff 1pt; padding: 5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Estas extensiones nos permiten comunicar de forma eficaz nuestras promociones sin renunciar a la calidad y la idoneidad de nuestro mensaje principal. Gracias a esta herramienta, hemos conseguido un aumento del 30&nbsp;%</span> <span style="font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">en el porcentaje de conversiones".</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">David Chau, analista sénior de Marketing Digital de Marcas de Torrid</span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-left: 1pt;"><table style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none;"><colgroup><col width="171" /><col width="453" /></colgroup><tbody><tr style="height: 93pt;"><td style="border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-left: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-right: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-top: solid #ffffff 1pt; padding: 5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="56" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/3jRzxLwJlnjowtRbEAGwY8SXKKjaMdaX4UWmazOph9W-slrdfqF2uIplsNkm4s8d0aW0bKDDGA6vLIScLhPhUMOL6yXKOS9tvV8UUcHA-kBPjT7L_toZ8eb5MinRahPcYG0_rEcgW7f8jOKgNA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="155" /></span></span></div></td><td style="border-bottom: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-left: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-right: solid #ffffff 1pt; border-top: solid #ffffff 1pt; padding: 5pt 5pt 5pt 5pt; vertical-align: middle;"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Al añadir extensiones de promoción hemos dado a los clientes un motivo más para visitar nuestro sitio web y comprar ahí lo que buscan, y hemos conseguido aumentar el ROAS un 20&nbsp;%. Estas extensiones son un recurso publicitario imprescindible para todos los anunciantes de comercio electrónico".</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Michael Nuss, director de Marketing Digital de Shoe Carnival</span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prueba nuevas ideas con variaciones de anuncios</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A veces, un pequeño cambio en el texto de los anuncios (como añadir un detalle navideño o usar una llamada a la acción diferente) puede tener un impacto enorme en el rendimiento. Por ese motivo,</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">estamos implementando gradualmente</span> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">variaciones de anuncios</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">, una forma rápida y fácil de probar cambios en los anuncios de texto a gran escala.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Por ejemplo, puedes probar cómo afectaría al rendimiento de tus anuncios de texto añadir "Feliz Navidad". Las</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/7439892?ref_topic=3119078" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">variaciones de anuncios</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">permiten probar este cambio en miles de anuncios con solo unos clics. De hecho, algunos anunciantes han configurado variaciones de más de un millón de anuncios en menos de un minuto.</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">En cuanto las variaciones que hayas creado tengan relevancia estadística, obtendrás los resultados de la prueba. Si una variación está obteniendo un buen rendimiento, puedes sustituir rápidamente todos tus anuncios por esa variación.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="239" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fbXDrOIqU7B5eefg_O1f0y98yZwTyBLDyJWnHakaL9soF5jAVeaQLRW4nXYdvyto5IB9bSSJDnDi3rj3o56v43BJNp-P8GYhyDOLPJ1FD5uUgvPwQ3gsYGRM9JeZC637jdliYuV1MxhuwFw8gA" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="500" /></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empresas como Merkle y Agoda ya están usando variaciones de anuncios para probar, medir y aplicar variaciones con las que mejorar los resultados en menos tiempo.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">&nbsp;<img height="35" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/tAK_Oer23qALGZS16kjY1S_M_fV4FoJWegKNQJV1EWGNN363FFVV9Nb_D8YjokdYv_cy9d57zjsdJzuKzbay7eF8Mm6TYzTG1W0Y0hMzGgkBIA3hPDHVCkhc522oftURX5Spu5-ADI7R3iu2qw" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="207" /></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">La agencia de marketing basado en rendimiento Merkle ayudó a uno de sus clientes, una importante empresa de educación online, a incrementar los clics en un 13&nbsp;% y las conversiones en un 14&nbsp;% cuando las pruebas de variaciones de anuncios revelaron que su rendimiento mejoraría si expandían los anuncios de texto e implementaban rotaciones de anuncios optimizadas.</span></span></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /><img height="114" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/KjNhwdS9f6t7sxl05yb_AXKXHHoqlW7Goy0JLZNTMy9L1Gh-fhIaP1vEHdO2aiVWKmTUpdu-LIkLkKPO5Qtbf9EEa93TxXcSrgOVqwd3rsbGDlfigS5gTYdThcQTAgMISKO74zLPYYqo5fF-aw" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="223" /></span><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Las variaciones de anuncios nos han permitido probar cambios en el texto de todos los anuncios de nuestra cuenta en solo unos minutos, lo que antes significaba horas de trabajo manual. Ahora podemos probar rápidamente el texto de los anuncios e implementar mejoras para incrementar nuestro rendimiento".</span> <span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Robert Tayon, responsable de PPC en Agoda</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Llega a los compradores adecuados con audiencias de intención personalizadas</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">En estos momentos, puede haber usuarios buscando regalos y dispuestos a adquirir los productos o servicios que ofrece tu empresa. Para llegar a los usuarios que ya están en el momento "quiero comprar" también estamos implementando las</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/2497941#custom_intent" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">audiencias de intención personalizadas</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">en la Red de Display de Google. Con este tipo de audiencia, podrás llegar fácilmente a las personas que quieren comprar los productos que ofreces. Para conseguirlo, nos basamos en los datos de tus campañas, sitios web y canales de YouTube.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Supongamos que tienes una agencia de viajes y ofreces escapadas navideñas. Google podría crear automáticamente una audiencia de personas que busquen "estaciones de esquí todo incluido" o "vuelos a Canarias" y mostrarte las estimaciones de cobertura y rendimiento de cada audiencia. De esta manera, podrías planificar tus campañas con precisión.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Descubre nuevas oportunidades para ampliar tu negocio</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Si quieres conocer otras formas de mejorar el rendimiento de tus campaña esta Navidad, visita la</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/3416396" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">página Oportunidades</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">. Encontrarás recomendaciones más útiles, estadísticas más relevantes y prácticas recomendadas para cumplir tus objetivos de negocio. Las oportunidades están disponibles en las</span> <a href="https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6139186" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cuentas de administrador</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">e incluyen la capacidad de filtrar por categoría (como por pujas y presupuesto). De esta manera, están mejor organizadas para que puedas aplicarlas a todas tus cuentas y campañas con solo unos clics.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Algunos de nuestros clientes, como Mindshare, han afirmado que las mejoras introducidas en la página Oportunidades les sirvieron para conseguir sus objetivos de negocio:</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">"En la página Oportunidades de nuestra cuenta de administrador podemos identificar rápidamente mejoras en términos de optimización y eficacia, calcular efectos en el coste, el tráfico y el rendimiento en distintos mercados, e implementar mejoras con solo un clic".</span> <span style="font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;">Amy Perkins, directora de cuentas de Publicidad en Buscadores, Mindshare</span></span></span></div><br /><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img height="302" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/n2S8KFqE2YWQCGKl8zlWiq6wngE5X6474GpbVnZpHgLF4tEih99TL8_0BFqmGzyujzgyufyxAaHZ-wx-5zfRLCKesan0Ve-sJkky6vuIIifW5xiT1QGbTw4pC-p6KEaIoJ3QLT4Nznti44qYlg" style="-webkit-transform: rotate(0.00rad); border: none; transform: rotate(0.00rad);" width="624" /></span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Empezar</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Inicia sesión en la</span> <a href="https://adwords.google.com/um/identity?dst=%2Faw%2Foverview&amp;sourceid=awo&amp;subid=us-en-di-g-aw-a-newadwords_1!o2" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt; text-decoration-line: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">nueva experiencia de AdWords</span></a> <span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">para empezar a usar estas innovadoras herramientas y mejorar los resultados de tu empresa.</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Publicado por Anthony Chavez, director de Gestión de Productos, Google&nbsp;AdWords</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">1</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Google/Ipsos Connect, How devices connect consumers to stores (Cómo conectan los dispositivos a los consumidores con las tiendas), marzo del 2016</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 6pt; vertical-align: super; white-space: pre-wrap;">2</span><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 8pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">&nbsp;Datos internos de Google, octubre del 2017</span></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.3800000000000001; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/lVPg/~4/V3Ql6519hPI" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Dentro de AdWords - España http://adwords-es.googleblog.com/2017/11/innovaciones-de-google-adwords-que_29.html<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-47718358514706772852017-11-28T14:43:00.001-08:002017-11-28T14:43:17.817-08:00How to Write Marketing Case Studies That Convert<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/707399/&quot;">kerryjones</a></p><p>In my last post, I discussed <a href="https://moz.com/blog/tangential-content" target="_blank">why your top funnel content shouldn’t be all about your brand</a>. Today I’m making a 180-degree turn and covering the value of content at the opposite end of the spectrum: content that’s <em>directly</em> about your business and offers proof of your effectiveness.</p><p>Specifically, I’m talking about case studies.</p><p>I’m a big believer in investing in case studies because I’ve seen firsthand what happened once we started doing so at Fractl. Case studies were a huge game changer for our B2B marketing efforts. For one, our <a href="http://www.frac.tl/content-marketing-case-studies/" target="_blank">case studies portfolio page</a> brings in a lot of traffic – it’s the second most-visited page on our site, aside from our home page. It also brings in a significant volume of organic traffic, being our fourth most-visited page from organic searches. Most importantly, <strong>our case studies are highly effective at converting visitors to leads</strong> – about half of our leads view at least one of our case studies before contacting us.</p><p>Assuming anyone who reads the Moz Blog is performing some type of marketing function, I’m zeroing in on how to write a compelling marketing case study that differentiates your service offering and pulls prospects down the sales funnel. However, what I’m sharing can be used as a framework for creating case studies in any industry.</p><h2>Get your client on board with a case study</h2><p>Marketers shy away from creating case studies for a few reasons:</p><ol><li>They’re too busy “in the weeds” with deliverables.</li><li>They don’t think their results are impressive enough.</li><li>They don’t have clients’ permission to create case studies.</li></ol><p>While I can’t help you with #1 and #2 (it’s up to you to make the time and to get the results deserving of a case study!), I do have some advice on #3.</p><p>In a perfect world, clients would encourage you to share every little detail of your time working together. In reality, most clients expect you to remain tight-lipped about the work you’ve done for them.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9504b963.34661600.gif" alt="cobert-gif.gif" /></p><p>Understandably, this might discourage you from creating any case studies. But it shouldn’t.</p><p>With some compromising, chances are your client will be game for a case study. We’ve noticed the following two objections are common regarding case studies.</p><h4>Client objection 1: “We don’t want to share specific numbers.”</h4><p>At first it you may think, “Why bother?” if a client tells you this, but don’t let it hold you back. (Truth is, the majority of your clients will probably feel this way).</p><p>In this instance, you’ll want your case study to focus on highlighting the strategy and describing projects, while steering away from showing specific numbers regarding short and long-term results. Believe it or not, the solution part of the case study can be just as, or more, compelling than the results. (I’ll get to that shortly.)</p><p>And don’t worry, you don’t have to completely leave out the results. One way to get around not sharing actual numbers but still showing results is to use growth percentages.</p><p>Specific numbers: <em>“Grew organic traffic from 5,000 to 7,500 visitors per month”</em></p><p>Growth percentage: <em>“Increased organic traffic by 150%”</em></p><p>We do this for most of our case studies at Fractl, and our clients are totally fine with it.</p><h4>Client objection 2: “We don’t want to reveal our marketing strategy to competitors.”</h4><p>A fear of giving away too much intel to competitors is especially common in highly competitive niches.</p><p>So how do you get around this?</p><p>Keep it anonymous. Don’t reveal who the client is and keep it vague about what niche they’re in. This can be as ambiguous as referring to the client as “Client A” or slightly more specific (“our client in the auto industry”). Instead, the case study will focus on the process and results – this is what your prospects care about, anyway.</p><h2>Gather different perspectives</h2><p>Unless you were directly working with the client who you are writing the case study about, you will need to conduct a few interviews to get a full picture of the who, what, how, and why of the engagement. At Fractl, our marketing team puts together case studies based on interviews with clients and the internal team who worked on the client’s account.</p><h4>The client</h4><p>Arrange an interview with the client, either on a call or via email. If you have multiple contacts within the client’s team, interview the main point of contact who has been the most involved in the engagement.</p><p>What to ask:</p><ul><li>What challenge were you facing that you hired us to help with?</li><li>Had you previously tried to solve this challenge (working with another vendor, using internal resources, etc.)?</li><li>What were your goals for the engagement?</li><li>How did you benefit from the engagement (short-term and long-term results, unexpected wins, etc.)?</li></ul><p>You’ll also want to run the case study draft by the client before publishing it, which offers another chance for their feedback.</p><h4>The project team</h4><p>Who was responsible for this client’s account? Speak with the team behind the strategy and execution.<br /></p><p>What to ask:</p><ul><li>How was the strategy formed? Were strategic decisions made based on your experience and expertise, competitive research, etc.?</li><li>What project(s) were launched as part of the strategy? What was the most successful project?</li><li>Were there any unexpected issues that you overcame?</li><li>Did you refine the strategy to improve results?</li><li>How did you and the client work together? Was there a lot of collaboration or was the client more hands-off? (Many prospective clients are curious about what their level of involvement in your process would look like.)</li><li>What did you learn during the engagement? Any takeaways?</li></ul><h2>Include the three crucial elements of a case study</h2><p>There’s more than one way to package case studies, but the most convincing ones all have something in common: great storytelling. To ensure you’re telling a proper narrative, your case study should include the conflict, the resolution, and the happy ending (but not necessarily in this order).</p><p>We find a case study is most compelling when you get straight to the point, rather than making someone read the entire case study before seeing the results. To grab readers’ attention, we begin with a quick overview of conflict-resolution-happy ending right in the introduction.</p><p>For example, in our <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/fanatics-6-month-engagement-case-study/" target="_blank">Fanatics case study</a>, we summarized the most pertinent details in the first three paragraphs. The rest of the case study focused on the resolution and examples of specific projects.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee96057186.36525325.png" alt="fanatics-case-study.png" /></p><p>Let’s take a look at what the conflict, resolution, and happy ending of your case study should include.</p><h3>The Conflict: What goal did the client want to accomplish?</h3><p>Typically serving as the introduction of the case study, “the conflict” should briefly describe the client’s business, the problem they hired you to work on, and what was keeping them from fixing this problem (ex. lack of internal resources or internal expertise). This helps readers identify with the problem the client faced and empathize with them – which can help them envision coming to you for help with this problem, too.</p><p>Here are a few examples of “conflicts” from our case studies:</p><ul><li><em>“Movoto engaged Fractl to showcase its authority on local markets by increasing brand recognition, driving traffic to its website, and earning links back to on-site content.”</em></li><li><em>“Alexa came to us looking to increase awareness – not just around the Alexa name but also its resources. Many people had known Alexa as the site-ranking destination; however, Alexa also provides SEO tools that are invaluable to marketers.”</em></li><li><em>“While they already had strong brand recognition within the link building and SEO communities, Buzzstream came to Fractl for help with launching large-scale campaigns that would position them as thought leaders and provide long-term value for their brand.”</em></li></ul><h3>The Resolution: How did you solve the conflict?</h3><p>Case studies are obviously great for showing proof of results you’ve achieved for clients. But perhaps more importantly, case studies give prospective clients a glimpse into your processes and how you approach problems. A great case study paints a picture of what it’s like to work with you.</p><p>For this reason, the bulk of your case study should detail the resolution, sharing as much specific information as you and your client are comfortable with; the more you’re able to share, the more you can highlight your strategic thinking and problem solving abilities.</p><p>The following snippets from our case studies are examples of details you may want to include as part of your solution section:</p><p><strong>What our strategy encompassed:</strong></p><p>“Mixing evergreen content and timely content helped usher new and existing audience members to the We Are Fanatics blog in record numbers. We focused on presenting interesting data through evergreen content that appealed to a variety of sports fans as well as content that capitalized on current interest around major sporting events.” - from <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/fanatics-6-month-engagement-case-study/" target="_blank">Fanatics case study</a></p><p><strong>How strategy was decided:</strong></p><p>“We began by forming our ideation process around Movoto’s key real estate themes. Buying, selling, or renting a home is an inherently emotional experience, so we turned to our research on viral emotions to figure out how to identify with and engage the audience and Movoto’s prospective clients. Based on this, we decided to build on the high-arousal feelings of curiosity, interest, and trust that would be part of the experience of moving.</p><p>We tapped into familiar cultural references and topics that would pique interest in the regions consumers were considering. Comic book characters served us well in this regard, as did combining publicly available data (such as high school graduation rates or IQ averages) with our own original research.” - from <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/case-study-movoto/" target="_blank">Movoto case study</a></p><p><strong>Why strategy was changed based on initial results:</strong></p><p>“After analyzing the initial campaigns, we determined the most effective strategy included a combination of the following content types designed to achieve different goals [case study then lists the three types of content and goals]...</p><p>This strategy yielded even better results, with some campaigns achieving up to 4 times the amount of featured stories and social engagement that we achieved in earlier campaigns.” - from <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/case-study-buzzstream/" target="_blank">BuzzStream case study</a></p><p><strong>How our approach was tailored to the client’s niche:</strong></p><p>“In general, when our promotions team starts its outreach, they’ll email writers and editors who they think would be a good fit for the content. If the writer or editor responds, they often ask for more information or say they’re going to do a write-up that incorporates our project. From there, the story is up to publishers – they pick and choose which visual assets they want to incorporate in their post, and they shape the narrative.<br /><br />What we discovered was that, in the marketing niche, publishers preferred to feature other experts’ opinions in the form of guest posts rather than using our assets in a piece they were already working on. We had suspected this (as our Fractl marketing team often contributes guest columns to marketing publications), but we confirmed that guest posts were going to make up the majority of our outreach efforts after performing outreach for Alexa’s campaigns.” - from <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/b2b-content-marketing-case-study/" target="_blank">Alexa case study</a></p><p><strong>Who worked on the project:</strong></p><p>Since the interviews you conduct with your internal team will inform the solution section of the case study, you may want to give individuals credit via quotes or anecdotes as a means to humanize the people behind the work. In the example below, one of our case studies featured a Q&amp;A section with one of the project leads.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee96c41a73.64701728.png" /></p><h3>The Happy Ending: What did your resolution achieve?</h3><p>Obviously, this is the part where you share your results. As I mentioned previously, we like to feature the results at the beginning of the case study, rather than buried at the end.</p><p>In our <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/content-marketing-case-study-superdrug-online-doctor/" target="_blank">Superdrug Online Doctor case study</a>, we summarized the overall results our campaigns achieved over 16 months:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee97762bf5.31472411.png" /></p><p>But the happy ending isn’t finished here.</p><p>A lot of case studies fail to answer an important question: <strong>What impact did the results have on the client’s business?</strong> Be sure to tie in how the results you achieved had a bottom-line impact.</p><p>In the case of Superdrug Online Doctor, the results from our campaigns lead to a 238% increase in organic traffic. This type of outcome has tangible value for the client.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee980246d8.96644825.png" /></p><p>You can also share secondary benefits in addition to the primary goals the client hired you for.</p><p>In the case of our client Busbud, who hired us for SEO-oriented goals, we included <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/instagrammed-locations-case-study/" target="_blank">examples of secondary results</a>.</p><p><em>Busbud saw positive impacts beyond SEO, though, including the following:</em></p><ul><li><em>Increased blog traffic</em></li><li><em>New partnerships as a result of more brands reaching out to work with the site</em></li><li><em>Brand recognition at large industry events</em></li><li><em>An uptick in hiring</em></li><li><em>Featured as a “best practice” case study at an SEO conference</em></li></ul><p>Similarly, in our <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/b2b-lead-generation-case-study/" target="_blank">Fractl brand marketing case study</a>, which focused on lead generation, we listed all of the additional benefits resulting from our strategy.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee988d65f8.78353694.png" /></p><h2>How to get the most out of your case studies</h2><p>You’ve published your case study, now what should you do with it?</p><h3>Build a case study page on your site</h3><p>Once you've created several case studies, I recommend housing them all on the same page. This makes it easy to show off your results in a single snapshot and saves visitors from searching through your blog or clicking on a category tag to find all of your case studies in one place. Make this page easy to find through your site navigation and internal links.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9943f312.43349190.png" /></p><p>While it probably goes without saying, make sure to optimize this page for search. When we initially created our case study portfolio page, we underestimated its potential to bring in search traffic and assumed it would mostly be accessed from our site navigation. Because of this, we were previously using a generic URL to house our case study portfolio. Since updating the URL from “frac.tl/our-work” to “frac.tl/content-marketing-case-studies,” we’ve jumped from page 2 to the top #1–3 positions for a specific phrase we wanted to rank for (“content marketing case studies”), which attracts highly relevant search traffic.</p><h3>Use case studies as concrete proof in blog posts and off-site content</h3><p>Case studies can serve as tangible examples that back up your claims. Did you state that creating original content for six months can double your organic traffic? On its own, this assertion may not be believable to some, but a case study showing these results will make your claim credible.</p><p>In a <a href="http://www.curata.com/blog/sales-funnel-content-marketing/" target="_blank">post on the Curata blog</a>, my colleague Andrea Lehr used our BuzzStream case study to back up her assertion that in order to attract links, social shares, and traffic, your off-site content should appeal to an audience beyond your target customer. Showing the results this strategy earned for a client gives a lot more weight to her advice.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee99f040d2.45628246.png" /></p><p>On the same note, case studies have high linking potential. Not only do they make a credible citation for your own off-site content, they can also be cited by others writing about your service/product vertical. Making industry publishers aware that you publish case studies by reaching out when you’ve released a new case study can lead to links down the road.</p><h3>Repurpose your case studies into multiple content formats</h3><p>Creating a case study takes a lot of time, but fortunately it can be reused again and again in various applications.</p><h4>Long-form case studies<br /></h4><p>While a case study featured on your site may only be a few hundred words, creating a more in-depth version is a chance to reveal more details. If you want to get your case study featured on other sites, consider writing a long-form version as a guest post.</p><p>Most of the case studies you’ll find on the Moz Blog are extremely detailed:</p><ul><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/case-study-ranking-high-volume-keyword" target="_blank">How We Ranked #1 for a High Volume Keyword in Under 3 Months</a> walks through the 8-step process used to achieve the impressive result called out in the headline.</li><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/cro-case-study" target="_blank">The Anatomy of a $97 Million Page: A CRO Case Study</a> offers much greater detail and insights than the case studies featured on the Conversion Wizards site.</li><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/roadmap-creating-share-worthy-content-massive-distribution" target="_blank">The Roadmap for Creating Share-Worthy Content with Massive Distribution</a> used one of our <a href="http://www.frac.tl/portfolio-item/campaign-case-study-perceptions-of-perfection/" target="_blank">campaign case studies</a> to illustrate our overall process for creating shareable widely-shared content.</li></ul><h4>Video</h4><p>HubSpot has <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/customers" target="_blank">hundreds of case studies</a>on its site, dozens of which also feature supplemental video case studies, such as the one below for <a href="https://youtu.be/4J8X8YbdrYw" target="_blank">Eyeota</a>.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9a926750.29092290.png" /></p><p>Don’t feel like you have to create flashy videos with impressive production value, even no-frills videos can work. Within its short case study summaries, <a href="https://prthatconverts.com/#case-studies" target="_blank">PR That Converts</a> embeds videos of clients talking about its service. These videos are simple and short, featuring the client speaking to their webcam for a few minutes.</p><p><em><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9b81d364.02258568.png" /></em></p><h4>Speaking engagements</h4><p>Marketing conferences love case studies. Look on any conference agenda, and you’re sure to notice at least a handful of speaker presentations focused on case studies. If you’re looking to secure more speaking gigs, including case studies in your speaking pitch can give you a leg up over other submissions – after all, your case studies are original data no one else can offer.</p><p>My colleague Kelsey Libert centered her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJ7J0krcLHA" target="_blank">MozCon presentation</a> a few years ago around some of our viral campaign case studies.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9c6e2577.46332020.png" /></p><h4>Sales collateral</h4><p>As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, many of our leads view the case studies on our site right before contacting us about working together. Once that initial contact is made, we don’t stop showing off our case studies.</p><p>We keep a running “best of” list of stats from our case studies, which allows us to quickly pull compelling stats to share in written and verbal conversations. Our pitch and proposal decks feature bite-sized versions of our case studies.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9d3b2494.65269945.png" /></p><p>Consider how you can incorporate case studies into various touch points throughout your sales process and make sure the case studies you share align with the industry and goals of whoever you're speaking with<span class="redactor-invisible-space">.</span><br /></p><p>I’ve shared a few of my favorite ways to repurpose case studies here but there are at least a dozen other applications, from email marketing to webinars to gated content to printed marketing materials. I even link to our case studies page in my email signature.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert/5a0dee9f045644.22344785.png" alt="case study email.png" /></p><p>My last bit of advice: Don’t expect immediate results. Case studies typically pay off over time. The good news is it’s worth the wait, because case studies retain their value – we’re still seeing leads come in and getting links to case studies we created three or more years ago. By extending their lifespan through repurposing, the case studies you create today can remain an essential part of your marketing strategy for years to come.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/CIDvW5YDo8Q" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/how-to-write-marketing-case-studies-that-convert<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-63465572374358568522017-11-28T07:19:00.001-08:002017-11-28T07:19:21.878-08:00Recordatorio sobre el marcado de eventos<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-67696812-02dd-a695-398d-9809f181b4c6"></span></div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Últimamente hemos recibido comentarios de usuarios que afirman haber visto elementos que no son eventos, como cupones, en los resultados de búsqueda en que aparecen fragmentos de eventos.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Esta situación confunde mucho a los usuarios y, además, infringe nuestras directrices, a las que hemos añadido <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/events">más información sobre el tema</a>. En concreto, ¿cuál es el problema?</span></span><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hemos observado que muchos editores de sitios web que ofrecen cupones describen sus ofertas con el marcado de eventos. Aunque usar un cupón de descuento puede ser algo muy especial, no por eso hay que considerar los cupones como si fueran eventos o saleEvents. Cuando se describe algo que no es un evento con el <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/events">marcado de eventos</a>, se crea una mala experiencia de usuario, porque se mostrará un resultado enriquecido de algo que sucederá en un momento determinado, aunque no haya ningún evento real.</span></div><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">A continuación se muestran algunos ejemplos que ilustran el problema:</span> <img src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7s_7OWQSniI/WhxTRHoLHbI/AAAAAAAAPjY/qi_yleXENNgN7hyXl4xvqZQJAB1QaSD1QCLcBGAs/s1600/nope-nope-nope.png" /> <span style="font-family: Arial;">Dado que en estos casos se generan experiencias de usuario engañosas, es posible que realicemos acciones manuales para corregirlas. Si tu sitio web se ve afectado por alguna de estas medidas, se mostrará una notificación en tu cuenta de Search Console. Si realizamos una acción manual en tu sitio web, es posible que no se utilice el marcado de datos estructurados de todo el sitio web en los resultados de búsqueda.</span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="text-align: left;">Si bien en esta entrada del blog destacamos específicamente el caso de los cupones, esta información también se aplica a cualquier otro elemento que no sea un evento y que esté marcado como tal; en realidad, se aplica al hecho de etiquetar elementos con un tipo de marcado que no sea el adecuado.</span></span></div>Para obtener más información, consulta la <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/data-types/events">documentación para desarrolladores</a> o, si tienes más preguntas, visita nuestro <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/go/community">foro para webmasters</a>.</div><div><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-align: justify; white-space: pre-wrap;">Escrito por Sven Naumann, del equipo de Confianza y seguridad de la Búsqueda</div><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-ac05d541-02df-dccc-f2e5-44cfef46998a"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ElBlogParaWebmasters/~4/KMWl8o2Xvh0" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from El Blog para Webmasters http://webmaster-es.googleblog.com/2017/11/recordatorio-sobre-el-marcado-de-eventos.html<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-91180317984792211732017-11-28T03:19:00.001-08:002017-11-28T03:19:08.090-08:00Fomentar la interacción de los usuarios con páginas AMP de gran calidad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.7999999999999998; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Estamos cambiando el modo de aplicar nuestras políticas sobre la equivalencia de contenido en AMP para mejorar la experiencia de los usuarios con este tipo de resultados. A partir del 1 de febrero del 2018, en las políticas se exigirá que el contenido de las páginas AMP sea equiparable al contenido de sus páginas canónicas (originales). No hemos modificado la política de posicionamiento con respecto a AMP, que no se considera un indicador de posicionamiento. <a href="https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/10/introducing-accelerated-mobile-pages.html">En el 2015, se hizo público</a> el proyecto de código abierto Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) y, desde entonces, su crecimiento ha sido espectacular: el formato AMP se ha implementado en más de <a href="https://www.ampproject.org/es/latest/blog/amp-two-years-of-user-first-webpages/">25 millones de dominios</a>. Con este progreso tan rápido también viene la responsabilidad de asegurarse de que los usuarios sigan disfrutando del contenido de una manera óptima, lo que, al fin y al cabo, genera una mayor interacción con el contenido de editores. A veces, los webmasters publican dos versiones de su contenido: una página canónica que no se basa en AMP y una página AMP. Lo ideal sería que ambas fueran equivalentes; así, los usuarios podrían acceder al mismo contenido, con la única diferencia que la experiencia de la versión AMP sería más rápida y fluida. No obstante, en algunos casos el contenido de las páginas AMP no es el mismo que el de sus páginas originales (canónicas). En contadas ocasiones, en las páginas AMP se muestra solo un fragmento del contenido real, lo que genera una pésima experiencia de usuario, puesto que hay muy poco contenido y los usuarios tienen que hacer clic dos veces para acceder a lo que buscan. A continuación, tienes un ejemplo de lo que acabamos de comentar: se ofrece un breve fragmento del artículo principal y, posteriormente, se pide a los usuarios que hagan clic en un enlace para acceder a otra página donde está el artículo entero.</span></span> <span id="docs-internal-guid-ac05d541-01fc-87da-96e5-c9821f98af7e"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img height="200" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/HT_ZIAOmgyuDSdSf5JOyUJKlt00InYysuTeug2PbEjf8XHQDl1TpqaxUFDww6cH6imOpf9yItvs9cZkvb50WQt1SlsP09l-9-gny8D8-kHga6Bfoo1WGQ4TmP-fi_bfWVZJVrnxA" style="border: none; transform: rotate(0rad);" width="144" /></span></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-wrap;">La tecnología AMP se ha diseñado con el objetivo de mejorar el rendimiento de la Web y ofrecer una experiencia de consumo de contenido rápida y coherente. Por tanto, pronto <a href="https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6340290?hl=es">empezaremos a exigir</a> que, para que las páginas AMP aparezcan como tales en la Búsqueda de Google, tanto estas como sus páginas canónicas tengan un contenido muy similar. Si en una página AMP no se incluye el mismo contenido importante que en su equivalente que no es AMP, dirigiremos los usuarios a esta última. Este cambio no afecta al posicionamiento en los resultados de la Búsqueda. No obstante, no se incluirán estas páginas en las funciones de la Búsqueda que requieren AMP, como el carrusel Noticias destacadas de AMP. Además, enviaremos a los webmasters en cuestión un mensaje de acción manual en <a href="https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=es">Search Console</a>, y ofreceremos a los editores la oportunidad de solucionar el problema para que sus páginas AMP puedan volver a publicarse. En el sitio web del <a href="https://www.ampproject.org/es/">proyecto de código abierto de AMP</a> se incluyen guías útiles para aprender a diseñar páginas AMP rápidas, atractivas y eficaces. Esperamos que este cambio anime a los webmasters a ofrecer el mismo contenido en páginas canónicas y sus equivalentes AMP. De este modo, conseguirán una mejor experiencia en su sitio web, lo que, a su vez, mejorará la satisfacción de sus usuarios. Escrito por Ashish Mehta, director de producto. Publicado por Joan Ortiz, equipo de calidad de búsqueda.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></div><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ElBlogParaWebmasters/~4/kyiaR4O_BAY" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from El Blog para Webmasters http://webmaster-es.googleblog.com/2017/11/fomentar-la-interaccion-de-los-usuarios-con-paginas-amp.html<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-3592297539416239232017-11-27T15:28:00.001-08:002017-11-27T15:28:19.545-08:00Knowledge Graph Eats Featured Snippets, Jumps +30%<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/22897/&quot;">Dr-Pete</a></p><p>Over the past two years, we've seen a steady and substantial increase in Featured Snippets on Google SERPs. In our 10,000-keyword daily tracking set, Featured Snippets have gone from about 5.5% of queries in November 2015 to a recent high of just over 16% (roughly tripling). Other data sets, with longer tail searches, have shown even higher prevalence.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/kg-eats-snippets-1-11060.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>Near the end of October (far-right of the graph), we saw our first significant dip (spotted by <a href="https://searchengineland.com/featured-snippet-bubble-busting-286107" target="_blank">Brian Patterson on SEL</a>). This dip occurred over about a 4-day period, and represents roughly a 10% drop in searches with Featured Snippets. Here's an enhanced, 2-week view (note: Y-axis is expanded to show the day-over-day changes more clearly):</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/kg-eats-snippets-2-7650.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>Given the up-and-to-the-right history of Featured Snippets and the investments people have been making optimizing for these results, a 10% drop is worthy of our attention.</p><h2>What happened, exactly?</h2><p>To be honest, when we investigate changes like this, the best we can usually do is produce a list of keywords that lost Featured Snippets. Usually, we focus on high-volume keywords, which tend to be more interesting. Here's a list of keywords that lost Featured Snippets during that time period:</p><ul><li>CRM</li><li>ERP</li><li>MBA</li><li>buddhism</li><li>web design</li><li>anger management</li><li>hosting</li><li>DSL</li><li>ActiveX</li><li>ovulation</li></ul><p>From an explanatory standpoint, this list isn't usually very helpful – what exactly do "web design", "buddhism", and "ovulation" have in common (please, don't answer that)? In this case, though, there was a clear and interesting pattern. Almost all of the queries that lost Featured Snippets gained Knowledge Panels that look something like this one:</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-3-194255.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>These new panels account for the vast majority of the lost Featured Snippets I've spot-checked, and all of them are general Knowledge Panels coming directly from Wikipedia. In some cases, Google is using a more generic Knowledge Graph entry. For example, "HDMI cables", which used to show a Featured Snippet (dominated by Amazon, last I checked), now shows no snippet and a generic panel for "HDMI":</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-4-124818.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>In very rare cases, a SERP added the new Knowledge Panel but retained the Featured Snippet, such as the top of this search for "credit score":</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-5-186117.png" style="border: 0px;" /></p><p>These situations seemed to be the exceptions to the rule.</p><h2>What about other SERPs?</h2><p>The SERPs that lost Featured Snippets were only one part of this story. Over the same time period, we saw an explosion (about +30%) in Knowledge Panels:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/kg-eats-snippets-6-7173.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>This Y-axis has not been magnified – the jump in Knowledge Panels is clearly visible even at normal scale. Other tracking sites saw similar, dramatic increases, including <a href="https://www.rankranger.com/blog/serp-feature-trends-change">this data from RankRanger</a>. This jump appears to be a similar type of descriptive panel, ranging from commercial keywords, like "wedding dresses" and "Halloween costumes"...</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-7-182220.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>...to brand keywords, like "Ray-Ban"...</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/kg-eats-snippets-8-43515.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>Unlike definition boxes, many of these new panels appear on words and phrases that appear to be common knowledge and add little value. Here's a panel on "job search"...</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-9-74226.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>I suspect that most people searching for "job search" or "job hunting" don't need it defined. Likewise, people searching for "travel" probably weren't confused about what travel actually is...</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog_original/kg-eats-snippets-10-153132.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>Thanks for clearing that up, Google. I've decided to spare you all and leave out a screenshot for "toilet" (go ahead and Google it). Almost all of these new panels appear to be driven by Wikipedia (or Wikidata), and most of them are single-paragraph definitions of terms.<br /></p><h2>Were there other changes?</h2><p>During the exact same period, we also noticed a drop in SERPs with inline image results. Here's a graph of the same 2-week period reported for the other features:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/kg-eats-snippets-11-7448.png" style="border: 0px" /></p><p>This drop almost exactly mirrors the increase in Knowledge Panels. In cases where the new panels were added, those panels almost always contain a block of images at the top. This block seems to have replaced inline image results. It's interesting to note that, because image blocks in the left-hand column consume an organic position, this change freed up an organic spot on the first page of results for those terms.</p><h2>Why did Google do this?</h2><p>It's likely that Google is trying to standardize answers for common terms, and perhaps they were seeing quality or consistency issues in Featured Snippets. In some cases, like "HDMI cables", Featured Snippets were often coming from top e-commerce sites, which are trying to sell products. These aren't always a good fit for unbiased definitions. Its also likely that Google would like to beef up the Knowledge Graph and rely less, where possible, on outside sites for answers.</p><p>Unfortunately, this also means that the answers are coming from a much less diverse pool (and, from what we've seen, almost entirely from Wikipedia), and it reduces the organic opportunity for sites that were previously ranking for or trying to compete for Featured Snippets. In many cases, these new panels also seem to add very little. Someone searching for "ERP" might be helped by a brief definition, but someone searching for "travel" is unlikely looking to have it explained to them.</p><p>As always, there's not much we can do but monitor the situation and adapt. Featured Snippets are still at historically high levels and represent a legitimate organic opportunity. There's also win-win, since efforts invested in winning Featured Snippets tend to improve organic ranking and, done right, can produce a better user experience for both search and website visitors.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/bp5USI4AGLw" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/knowledge-graph-eats-featured-snippets<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-17779777165254909622017-11-24T15:23:00.001-08:002017-11-24T15:23:13.836-08:00Which of My Competitor's Keywords Should (& Shouldn't ) I Target? - Whiteboard Friday<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/63/&quot;">randfish</a></p><p>You don't want to try to rank for every one of your competitors' keywords. Like most things with SEO, it's important to be strategic and intentional with your decisions. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares his recommended process for understanding your funnel, identifying the right competitors to track, and prioritizing which of their keywords you ought to target.</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/j3mr4ebsy0?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe></p><script rel="display: none;" src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/which-of-my-competitor-s-keywords-should-shouldn-t-i-target-whiteboard-friday/5a14b02c8f31e1.12248547.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/which-of-my-competitor-s-keywords-should-shouldn-t-i-target-whiteboard-friday/5a14b02c8f31e1.12248547.jpg" alt="Which of my competitor's keyword should I target?" style="box-shadow: rgb(153, 153, 153) 0px 0px 10px 0px; border-radius: 20px;" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!<br /></p><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. So this week we're chatting about your competitors' keywords and which of those competitive keywords you might want to actually target versus not.</p><p>Many folks use tools, like <a href="https://www.semrush.com/" target="_blank">SEMrush</a> and <a href="https://ahrefs.com/" target="_blank">Ahrefs</a> and <a href="http://www.keywordspy.com/" target="_blank">KeywordSpy</a> and <a href="https://www.spyfu.com/" target="_blank">Spyfu</a> and <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank">Moz's Keyword Explorer</a>, which now has this feature too, where they look at: What are the keywords that my competitors rank for, that I may be interested in? This is actually a pretty smart way to do keyword research. Not the only way, but a smart way to do it. But the challenge comes in when you start looking at your competitors' keywords and then realizing actually which of these should I go after and in what priority order. In the world of competitive keywords, there's actually a little bit of a difference between classic keyword research.</p><p>So here I've plugged in Hammer and Heels, which is a small, online furniture store that has some cool designer furniture, and Dania Furniture, which is a competitor of theirs — they're local in the Seattle area, but carry sort of modern, Scandinavian furniture — and IndustrialHome.com, similar space. So all three of these in a similar space, and you can see sort of keywords that return that several of these, one or more of these rank for. I put together difficulty, volume, and organic click-through rate, which are some of the metrics that you'll find. You'll find these metrics actually in most of the tools that I just mentioned.</p><h2>Process:</h2><p>So when I'm looking at this list, which ones do I want to actually go after and not, and how do I choose? Well, this is the process I would recommend.<br /></p><h3>I. Try and make sure you first understand your keyword to conversion funnel.</h3><p>So if you've got a classic sort of funnel, you have people buying down here — this is a purchase — and you have people who search for particular keywords up here, and if you understand which people you lose and which people actually make it through the buying process, that's going to be very helpful in knowing which of these terms and phrases and which types of these terms and phrases to actually go after, because in general, when you're prioritizing competitive keywords, you probably don't want to be going after these keywords that send traffic but don't turn into conversions, unless that's actually your goal. If your goal is raw traffic only, maybe because you serve advertising or other things, or because you know that you can capture a lot of folks very well through retargeting, for example maybe Hammer and Heels says, "Hey, the biggest traffic funnel we can get because we know, with our retargeting campaigns, even if a keyword brings us someone who doesn't convert, we can convert them later very successfully," fine. Go ahead.</p><h3>II. Choose competitors that tend to target the same audience(s).</h3><p>So the people you plug in here should tend to be competitors that tend to target the same audiences. Otherwise, your relevance and your conversion get really hard. For example, I could have used West Elm, which does generally modern furniture as well, but they're very, very broad. They target just about everyone. I could have done Ethan Allen, which is sort of a very classic, old-school furniture maker. Probably a really different audience than these three websites. I could have done IKEA, which is sort of a low market brand for everybody. Again, not kind of the match. So when you are targeting conversion heavy, assuming that these folks were going after mostly conversion focused or retargeting focused rather than raw traffic, my suggestion would be strongly to go after sites with the same audience as you.</p><p>If you're having trouble figuring out who those people are, one suggestion is to check out a tool called <a href="https://www.similarweb.com/" target="_blank">SimilarWeb</a>. It's expensive, but very powerful. You can plug in a domain and see what other domains people are likely to visit in that same space and what has audience overlap.</p><h3>III. The keyword selection process should follow some of these rules:</h3><h4>A. Are easiest first.</h4><p>So I would go after the ones that tend to be, that I think are going to be most likely for me to be able to rank for easiest. Why do I recommend that? Because it's tough in SEO with a lot of campaigns to get budget and buy-in unless you can show progress early. So any time you can choose the easiest ones first, you're going to be more successful. That's low difficulty, high odds of success, high odds that you actually have the team needed to make the content necessary to rank. I wouldn't go after competitive brands here.</p><h4>B. Are similar to keywords you target that convert well now.</h4><p>So if you understand this funnel well, you can use your AdWords campaign particularly well for this. So you look at your paid keywords and which ones send you highly converting traffic, boom. If you see that lighting is really successful for our furniture brand, "Oh, well look, glass globe chandelier, that's got some nice volume. Let's go after that because lighting already works for us."</p><p>Of course, you want ones that fit your existing site structure. So if you say, "Oh, we're going to have to make a blog for this, oh we need a news section, oh we need a different type of UI or UX experience before we can successfully target the content for this keyword," I'd push that down a little further.</p><h4>C. High volume, low difficulty, high organic click-through rate, or SERP features you can reach.</h4><p>So basically, when you look at difficulty, that's telling you how hard is it for me to rank for this potential keyword. If I look in here and I see some 50 and 60s, but I actually see a good number in the 30s and 40s, I would think that glass globe chandelier, S-shaped couch, industrial home furniture, these are pretty approachable. That's impressive stuff.</p><p>Volume, I want as high as I can get, but oftentimes high volume leads to very high difficulty.<br />Organic click-through rate percentage, this is essentially saying what percent of people click on the 10 blue link style, organic search results. Classic SEO will help get me there. However, if you see low numbers, like a 55% for this type of chair, you might take a look at those search results and see that a lot of images are taking up the other organic click-through, and you might say, "Hey, let's go after image SEO as well." So it's not just organic click-through rate. You can also target SERP features.</p><h4>D. Are brands you carry/serve, generally not competitor's brand names.</h4><p>Then last, but not least, I would urge you to go after brands when you carry and serve them, but not when you don't. So if this Ekornes chair is something that your furniture store, that Hammers and Heels actually carries, great. But if it's something that's exclusive to Dania, I wouldn't go after it. I would generally not go after competitors' brand names or branded product names with an exception, and I actually used this site to highlight this. Industrial Home Furniture is both a branded term, because it's the name of this website — Industrial Home Furniture is their brand — and it's also a generic. So in those cases, I would tell you, yes, it probably makes sense to go after a category like that.</p><p>If you follow these rules, you can generally use competitive intel on keywords to build up a really nice portfolio of targetable, high potential keywords that can bring you some serious SEO returns.</p><p>Look forward to your comments and we'll see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.</p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/lU2sBqu5tms" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/competitors-keywords-should-shouldnt-target<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-51820517251778348512017-11-21T14:56:00.001-08:002017-11-21T14:56:08.732-08:00AMP-lify Your Digital Marketing in 2018<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/18040/&quot;">EricEnge</a></p><h2>Should you AMP-lify your site in 2018?</h2><p>This is a question on the mind of many publishers. To help answer it, this post is going to dive into case studies and examples showing results different companies had with AMP.</p><p>If you’re not familiar with Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), it’s an open-source project aimed at allowing mobile website content to render nearly instantly. This initiative that has Google as a sponsor, but it is not a program owned by Google, and it’s also supported by Bing, Baidu, Twitter, Pinterest, and many other parties.</p><hr /><h2>Some initial background</h2><p>Since its inception in 2015, AMP has come a long way. When it first hit the scene, AMP was laser-focused on media sites. The reason those types of publishers wanted to participate in AMP was clear: It would make their mobile sites much faster, AND Google was offering a great deal of incremental exposure in Google Search through the “Top Stories news carousel.”<br /></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365aa826280.80030906.png" /></p><p>Basically, you can only get in the Top Stories carousel on a mobile device if your page is implemented in AMP, and that made AMP a big deal for news sites. But if you’re not a news site, what’s in it for you? Simple: providing a better user experience online can lead to more positive website metrics and revenue.</p><p>We know that fast-loading websites are better for the user. But what you may not be aware of is how speed can impact the bottom line. Google-sponsored research shows that AMP leads to an average of a 2X increase in time spent on page (details <a href="https://www.ampproject.org/latest/blog/amp-two-years-of-user-first-webpages/" target="_blank">can be seen here</a>). The data also shows e-commerce sites experience an average 20 percent increase in sales conversions compared to non-AMP web pages.</p><p>Stepping outside the world of AMP for a moment, data from Amazon, Walmart, and Yahoo show a compelling impact of page load time on metrics like traffic, conversion and sales:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ab431e18.66674103.png" /></p><p>You can see that for Amazon, a mere one-tenth of a second increase in page load time (so one-tenth of a second slower) would drive a $1.3 billion drop in sales. So, page speed can have a direct impact on revenue. That should count for something.</p><p>What do users say about AMP? 9to5Google.com <a href="https://9to5google.com/2017/07/17/inclined-click-amp-link-poll/" target="_blank">recently conducted a poll</a> where they asked users: “Are you more inclined to click on an AMP link than a regular one?” The majority of people (51.14 percent) said yes to that question. Here are the detailed results:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365abb96672.84394394.jpg" /></p><p>This poll suggests that even for non-news sites, there is a very compelling reason to do AMP for SEO. Not because it increases your rankings, per se, but because you may get more click-throughs (more traffic) from the organic search results. Getting more traffic from organic search, after all, is the goal of SEO. In addition, you’re likely to get more time on site and more conversions.</p><hr /><h2>How the actual implementation of AMP impacts your results</h2><p>Before adopting any new technology, you need understand what you’re getting into.</p><p>At Stone Temple Consulting, we performed a research study that included 10 different types of websites that adopted AMP to see what results they had and what challenges they ran into. (<a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/the-canonical-guide-to-amp/" target="_blank">Go here to see more details from the study</a>.)</p><p>Let’s get right to the results. One site, Thrillist, converted 90 percent of their web pages over a four-week period of time. They saw a 70 percent lift in organic search traffic to their site — 50 percent of that growth came from AMP.</p><p>One anonymous participant in the study, another large media publisher, converted 95 percent of their web pages to AMP, and once again the development effort as approximately four weeks long. They saw a 67 percent lift in organic search traffic on one of their sites, and a 30% lift on another site.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ac1a69f4.73478783.jpg" /></p><p>So, media sites do well, but we knew that would be the case. What about e-commerce sites? Consider the case of <a href="https://www.myntra.com/" target="_blank">Myntra</a>, a company that is the largest fashion retailer in India. Their implementation took about 11 days of effort.</p><p>This implementation covered all of their main landing pages from Google, covering between 85% and 90% of their organic search traffic. For their remaining pages (such as the individual product pages) they implemented a Progressive Web App, which helps those pages perform better as well. They saw a 40% reduction in bounce rate on their pages, as well as a lift in their overall e-commerce results. You can <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/amp-case-study/myntra/" target="_blank">see detailed results here</a>.</p><p>Then there is the case of <a href="https://www.eventticketscenter.com/" target="_blank">Event Tickets Center</a>. They implemented 99.9% of their pages in AMP, and opted to create an AMP-immersive experience. Page load times on their site dropped from five to six seconds to one second.</p><p>They saw improvements in user engagement metrics, with a drop in bounce rate of 10%, an increase in pages per session of 6%, and session duration of 13%. But, the stunning stat is that they report a whopping 100% increase in e-commerce conversions. You can see <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/amp-case-study/event-tickets-center/" target="_blank">the full case study here</a>.</p><p>But it’s not always the case that AMP adopters will see a huge lift in results. When that’s not the case, there’s likely one culprit: not taking the time to implement AMP thoroughly. A big key to AMP is not to simply use a plugin, set it, and forget it.</p><p>To get good results, you’ll need to invest the time to make the AMP version of your pages substantially similar (if not identical) to your normal responsive mobile pages, and with today’s AMP, for the majority of publishers, that is absolutely possible to do. In addition to this being critical to the performance of AMP pages, on November 16, 2017, <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16666950/google-amp-teaser-page-ban" target="_blank">Google announced</a> that they will exclude pages from the AMP carousel if the content on your AMP page is not substantially similar to that of your mobile responsive page.</p><p>This typically means creating brand-new templates for the major landing pages of your site, or if you are using a plugin, using their custom styling options (most of them allow this). If you’re going to take on AMP, it’s imperative that you take the time to get this right.</p><p>From our research, you can see in the slide below the results from the 10 sites that adopted AMP. Eight of those sites are colored in green, and those are the sites that saw strong results from their AMP implementation.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ac8ba4a8.34840287.png" /></p><p>Then there are two listed in yellow. Those are the sites that have not yet seen good results. In both of those cases, there were implementation problems. One of the sites (the Lead Gen site above) launched pages with a broken hamburger menu, and a UI that was not up to par with the responsive mobile pages, and their metrics are weak.</p><p>We’ve been working with them to fix that and their metrics are steadily improving. The first round of fixes brought the user engagement metrics much closer to that of the mobile responsive pages, but there is still more work to do.</p><p>The other site (the retail site in yellow above) launched AMP pages without their normal faceted navigation, and also without a main menu, saw really bad results, and pulled it back down. They're working on a better AMP implementation now, and hope to relaunch soon.</p><p>So, when you think about implementing AMP, you have to go all the way with it and invest the time to do a complete job. That will make it harder, for sure, but that’s OK — you’ll be far better off in the end.</p><hr /><h2>How we did it at Stone Temple (and what we found)</h2><p>Here at Stone Temple Consulting, we experimented with AMP ourselves, using an AMP plugin versus a hand-coded AMP web page. I’ll share the results of that next.</p><h3>Experiment No. 1: WordPress AMP plugin</h3><p>Our site is on WordPress, and there are plugins that make the task of doing AMP easier if you have a WordPress site — however, that doesn’t mean install the plugin, turn it on, and you’re done.</p><p>Below you can see a comparison of the standard StoneTemple.com mobile page on the left contrasted with the default StoneTemple.com page that comes out of the AMP plugin that we used on the site called <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/amp/" target="_blank">AMP by Automatic</a>.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ad3bb9b0.36456706.jpg" /></p><p>You’ll see that the look and feel is dramatically different between the two, but to be fair to the plugin, we did what I just said you shouldn’t do. We turned it on, did no customization, and thought we were done.</p><p>As a result, there’s no hamburger menu. The logo is gone. It turns out that by default, the link at the top (“Stone Temple”) goes to StoneTemple.com/amp, but there’s no page for that, so it returns a 404 error, and the list of problems goes on. As noted, we had not used the customization options available in the plugin, which can be used to rectify most (if not all) of these problems, and the pages can be customized to look a lot better. As part of an ongoing project, we’re working on that.</p><p>It’s a lot faster, yes… but is it a better user experience? Looking at the data, we can see the impact of this broken implementation of AMP. The metrics are not good.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ada532a0.79789048.jpg" /></p><p>Looking at the middle line highlighted in orange, you’ll see the standard mobile page metrics. On the top line, you’ll see the AMP page metrics — and they’re all worse: higher bounce rate, fewer pages per session, and lower average session time.</p><p>Looking back to the image of the two web pages, you can see why. We were offering an inferior user interface because we weren’t giving the user any opportunities to interact. Therefore, we got predictable results.</p><h3>Experiment No. 2: Hand-coded AMP web page</h3><p>One of the common myths about AMP is that an AMP page needs to be a stripped-down version of your site to succeed. To explore whether or not that was true, we took the time at Stone Temple Consulting to hand-code a version of one of our article pages for AMP. Here is a look at how that came out:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ae264827.99211160.jpg" /></p><p>As you can see from the screenshots above, we created a version of the page that looked nearly identical to the original. We also added a bit of extra functionality with a toggle sidebar feature. With that, we felt we made something that had even better usability than the original page.<br /></p><p>The result of these changes? The engagement metrics for the AMP pages on StoneTemple.com went up dramatically. For the record, here are our metrics including the handcrafted AMP pages:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365ae9b6244.60772729.png" /></p><p>As you can see, the metrics have improved dramatically. We still have more that we can do with the handcrafted page as well, and we believe we can get these metrics to be better than that of the standard mobile responsive page. At this point in time, total effort on the handcrafted page template was about 40 hours.</p><p>Note: We do believe that we can get engagement on the AMP by Automatic plugin version to go way up, too. One of the reasons we did the hand-coded version was to get hands-on experience with AMP coding. We’re working on a better custom implementation of the AMP by Automatic pages in parallel.</p><hr /><h2>Bonus challenge: AMP analytics</h2><p>Aside from the actual implementation of AMP, there is a second major issue to be concerned about if you want to be successful: the tracking. The default tracking in Google Analytics for AMP pages is broken, and you’ll need to patch it.</p><p>Just to explain what the issue is, let’s look at the following illustration:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/amp-digital-marketing-2018/5a1365af25dc49.30253948.jpg" /></p><p>The way AMP works (and one of the things that helps with speeding up your web pages) is that your content is served out of a cache on Google. When a user clicks on the AMP link in the search results, that page lives in Google’s cache (on Google.com). That’s the web page that gets sent to the user.</p><p>The problem occurs when a user is viewing your web page on Google’s cache, and then clicks on a link within that page (say, to the home page of your site). This action means they leave the Google.com page and get the next page delivered from your server (in the example above, I’m using the StoneTemple.com server.)</p><p>From a web analytics point of view, those are two different websites. The analytics for StoneTemple.com is going to view that person who clicked on the AMP page in the Google cache as a visitor from a third-party website, and not a visitor from search. In other words, the analytics for StoneTemple.com won’t record it as a continuation of the same session; it’ll be tracked as a new session.</p><p>You can (and should) set up analytics for your AMP pages (the ones running on Google.com), but those are normally going to run as a separate set of analytics. Nearly every action on your pages in the Google cache will result in the user leaving the Google cache, and that will be seen as leaving the site that the AMP analytics is tracking. The result is that in the analytics for your AMP pages running on Google.com:</p><ul><li>Your pages per session will be about one</li><li>Bounce rate will be very high (greater than 90 percent)</li><li>Session times will be very short</li></ul><p>Then, for the AMP analytics on your domain, your number of visitors will not reflect any of the people who arrive on an AMP page first, and will only include those who view a second page on the site (on your main domain). If you try fixing this by adding your AMP analytics visit count to your main site analytics count, you’ll be double counting people that click through from one to the other.</p><p>There is a fix for this, and it’s referred to as “session stitching.” This is a really important fix to implement, and Google has provided it by creating an API that allows you to share the client ID information from AMP analytics with your regular website analytics. As a result, the analytics can piece together that it’s a continuation of the same session.</p><p>For more, you can see how to implement the fix to remedy both basic and advanced metrics tracking in my article on <a href="https://www.stonetemple.com/amp-tech-guide/" target="_blank">session stitching here</a>.</p><hr /><h2>Wrapping up</h2><p>AMP can offer some really powerful benefits — improved site speed, better user experience and more revenue — but only for those publishers that take the time to implement the AMP version of their AMP site thoroughly, and also address the tracking issue in analytics so they can see the true results.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/Iht2hhLWXP0" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/amp-digital-marketing-2018<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-84428222195533347562017-11-20T14:29:00.001-08:002017-11-20T14:29:17.525-08:00Geomodified Searches, Localized Results, and How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/4244781/&quot;">jocameron</a></p><p class="full-width"><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/next-level-23158-23158.jpg" /></p><p><em>Welcome to the newest installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, our fearless writer Jo Cameron shared <a href="https://moz.com/blog/low-value-content-next-level" target="_blank">how to uncover low-value content that could hurt your rankings</a> and turn it into something valuable. Today, she's returned to share how to do effective keyword research and targeting for local queries. Read on and level up!</em></p><hr /><p>All around the world, people are searching: X sits at a computer high above the city and searches dreamily for the <strong>best beaches in Ko Samui</strong>. Y strides down a puddle-drenched street and hastily types <strong>good Japanese noodles</strong> into an expensive handheld computer. K takes up way too much space and bandwidth on the free wireless network in a chain coffee house, which could be located just about anywhere in the world, and hunts for the <strong>best price on a gadgety thing</strong>.<br /></p><p>As we search, the engines are working hard to churn out relevant results based on what we’re searching, our location, personalized results, and just about anything else that can be jammed into an algorithm about our complex human lives. As a business owner or SEO, you’ll want to be able to identify the best opportunities for your online presence. Even if your business doesn’t have a physical location and you don’t have the pleasure of sweeping leaves off your welcome mat, understanding the local landscape can help you hone in on keywords with more opportunity for your business.</p><p>In this Next Level post, we’ll go through the different types of geo-targeted searches, how to track the right keywords and locations for your business in <a href="https://moz.com/products/pro" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Pro']);">Moz Pro</a>, and how to distribute your physical local business details with <a href="https://moz.com/products/local" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Local']);">Moz Local</a>. If you'd like to follow along with this tutorial, get started with a free 30-day trial of Moz Pro:<br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://moz.com/checkout/freetrial" target="_blank" class="button-primary large-cta orange" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'FT Button']);">Follow along with a free trial</a></p><p>Whether your customer is two streets away or gliding peacefully above us on the International Space Station, <strong>you must consider how the intertwining worlds of local and national search impact your online presence</strong>.</p><hr /><h2>Geomodified searches vs. geolocated searches</h2><p>First, so you can confidently stride into your next marketing meeting and effortlessly contribute to a related conversation on Slack, let’s take a quick look at the lingo.</p><p><strong>Geomodified searches</strong> include the city/neighborhood in the search term itself to target the searcher’s area of interest.</p><p>You may have searched some of these examples yourself in a moment of escapism: “beaches in Ko Samui,” “ramen noodles in Seattle,” “solid state drive London,” or “life drawing classes London.”</p><p>Geomodified searches state explicit local intent for results related to a particular location. As a marketer or business owner, tracking geomodified keywords gives you insight into how you’re ranking for those searches specifically.</p><p><strong>Geolocated searches</strong> are searches made while the searcher is physically located in a specific area — generally a city. You may hear the term “location targeting” thrown about, often in the high-roller realm of paid marketing. Rather than looking at keywords that contain certain areas, this type of geotargeting focuses on searches made within an area.</p><p>Examples might include: “Japanese noodles,” “Ramen,” “solid state drive,” or “coffee,” searched from the city of Seattle, or the city of London, or the city of Tokyo.</p><p>Of course, the above ways of searching and tracking are often intertwined with each other. Our speedy fingers type demands, algorithms buzz, and content providers hit publish and bite their collective nails as analytics charts populate displaying our progress. Smart SEOs will likely have a keyword strategy that accounts for both geomodified and geolocated searches.</p><h3>Researching local keywords</h3><p>The more specific your keywords and the location you’re targeting, generally, the less data you’ll find. Check your favorite keyword research tool, like <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer</a>, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. In this example, I’m looking at search volume data for “japanese noodles” vs. “japanese noodles london.”</p><p class="full-width caption"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f9349041f94.60204372.png" />"Japanese noodles"</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f93497b6875.07604673.png" /></p><p class="caption">"Japanese noodles London"<br /></p><p>So, do I toss this geomodified keyword? Hold on, buddy — while the Monthly Volume decreases, take a look at that Difficulty score — it <em>increases</em>. It’s an easy search term to dismiss, since the search volume is so low, but what this tells me is that there's more to the story.</p><p>A search for “japanese noodles” is too broad to divine much of the searcher’s intent — do they want to make Japanese noodles? Learn what Japanese noodles are? Find an appetizing image?… and so on and so forth. The term itself doesn’t give us much context to work with.</p><p>So, while the search volume may be lower, a search for “japanese noodles london” <em>means</em> so much more — now we have some idea of the <strong>searcher’s intent.</strong> If your site’s content matches up with the searcher’s intent, and you can beat your competition in the SERPs, you could find that the lower search volume equates to a higher conversion rate, and you could be setting yourself up for a great return on investment.</p><p>Digging into hyperlocal niches is a challenge. We’ve got some handy tips for <a href="https://moz.com/blog/3-tactics-for-hyperlocal-keywords-whiteboard-friday" target="_blank">investigating hyperlocal keywords</a>, including using similar but slightly larger regions, digging into auto-suggest to gather keyword ideas, and using the grouping function in <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer</a>.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934a017568.40898982.png" /></p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934a7ca4c3.87113569.png" /></p><p>Testing will be your friend here. Build a lovely list, create some content, and then test, analyze, and as the shampoo bottle recommends, rinse and repeat.</p><hr /><h2>Localized ranking signals and results</h2><p>When search engines impress us all by displaying a gazillion results per point whatever of a second, they aren’t just looking inwards at their index. They're looking outwards at the searcher, figuring out the ideal pairing of humans and results.</p><p><a href="https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors" target="_blank">Local rankings factors</a> take into consideration things like <a href="https://moz.com/blog/proximity-to-searcher-is-new-top-local-search-ranking-factor" target="_blank">proximity</a> between the searcher and the business, consistency of citations, and reviews, to name just a few. These are jumbled together with all the other signals we’re used to, like authority and relevancy. The full and glorious report is available here: <a href="https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors" target="_blank">https://moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors</a></p><p>I often find myself returning to the local search ranking factors report because there's just so much to digest. So go ahead bookmark it in a folder called “Local SEO” for easy reference, and delight in how organized you are.</p><p>While you may expect a search for “life drawing” to turn up mostly organic results, you can see the Local Pack is elbowing its way in there to serve up classes near me:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934b08ec16.55522770.png" /></p><p>And likewise, you may expect a search for “life drawing london” to show only local results, but lookie here: we’ve also got some top organic results that have targeted “life drawing london” and the local results creep ever closer to the top:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934ba00ea0.44188859.png" /></p><p>From these examples you can see that localized results can have a big impact on your SEO strategy, particularly if you’re competing with Local Pack-heavy results. So let’s go ahead and assemble a good strategy into a format that you can follow for your business.</p><hr /><h2>Tracking what’s right for your business</h2><p>With your mind brimming with local lingo, let’s take a look at how you can track the right types of keywords and locations for your business using <a href="https://moz.com/products/pro" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Pro']);">Moz Pro</a>. I’ll also touch on <a href="https://moz.com/products/local" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Local']);">Moz Local</a> for the brick-and-mortar types.</p><h3>1. Your business is rocking the online world</h3><p><em><strong>Quest:</strong> Track your target keywords nationally and keep your eye on keywords dominated by SERP features you can’t win, like Local Packs.</em></p><p>Hey there, w-w-w dot Your Great Site dot com! You’re the owner of a sweet, shiny website. You’re a member of the digital revolution, a content creator, a message deliverer, a gadgety thingy provider. Your customers are primarily online. I mean, they exist in real life too, but they are also totally and completely immersed in the online world. <em>(Aren’t we all?)</em></p><p>Start by <a href="https://analytics.moz.com/campaigns/new" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Set up campaign']);">setting up a brand-new Moz Pro Campaign for your target location</a>.</p><p>Select one of each search engine to track for your location. This is what I like to call the full deck:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934c435273.39334193.png" /></p><p>Another personal favorite is what I call the "Google Special." Select Google desktop and Google Mobile for two locations. This is especially handy if you want to track two national locations in a single Campaign. Here I’ve gone with the US and Canada:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934ca639b3.24446409.png" /></p><p>I like to track Google Mobile along with Google desktop results. Ideally you want to be performing consistently in both. If the results are hugely disparate, you may need to check that your site is <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/mobile-optimization" target="_blank">mobile friendly</a>.</p><p>Pour all your lovely keywords into the Campaign creation wizard. Turn that keyword bucket upside-down and give the bottom a satisfying tap like a drum:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934d1d6db3.13312400.png" /></p><p>Where have we found all these lovely keywords? Don’t tell me you don’t know!</p><p>Head over to <a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'KWE']);">Keyword Explorer</a> and enter your website. Yes, friend, that’s right. We can show you the keywords your site <em>is already ranking for</em>:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934d92c863.72984684.png" /></p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934e19ebb4.80650819.gif" /></p><p>I’m going to leave you to have some fun with that, but when you’re done frolicking in keywords you’re ranking for, keywords your competitors are ranking for, and keywords your Mum’s blog is ranking for, pop back and we’ll continue on our quest.</p><h4>Next: Onward to the SERP features!</h4><p>SERP features are both a blessing and a curse. Yes, you could zip to the top of page 1 if you’re lucky enough to be present in those SERP features, but they’re also a minefield, as they squeeze out the organic results you’ve worked so hard to secure.</p><p>Luckily for you, we’ve got the map to this dastardly minefield. Keep your eye out for Local Packs and Local Teasers; these are your main threats.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934e988290.67602607.png" /></p><p>If you have an online business and you're seeing too many local-type SERP features, this may be an indication that you’re tracking the wrong keywords. You can also start to identify features that do apply to your business, like Image Packs and Featured Snippets.</p><p>When you’re done with your local quest, you can come back and try to own some of these features, just like we explored in a previous Next Level blog post: <a href="https://moz.com/blog/hunting-serp-features-drive-traffic-next-level" target="_blank">Hunting Down SERP Features to Understand Intent &amp; Drive Traffic</a></p><h3>2. Your business rocks customers in the real world</h3><p><em><strong>Quest:</strong> Track keywords locally and nationally and hone in on local SERP features + the wonderful world of NAP.</em></p><p>What if you run a cozy little cupcake shop in your cozy little city?</p><p>Use the same search engine setup from above, and sprinkle locally tracked keywords into the mix.</p><p>If you’re setting up a new Campaign, you can add both national and local keywords like a boss.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934f024fa1.84121377.png" /></p><p>You can see I’ve added a mouthwatering selection of keywords in both the National Keywords section and in the Local Keywords field. This is because I want to see if one of my cupcake shop’s landing pages is ranking in Google Desktop, Google Mobile, and Yahoo and Bing, both nationally and locally, in my immediate vicinity of Seattle. Along with gathering comparative national and local ranking data, the other reason to track keywords nationally is so you can see how you’re doing in terms of on-page optimization.</p><p>Your path to cupcake domination doesn’t stop there! You’re also going to want to be the big player rocking the Local Pack.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f934fc20d65.48315295.png" /></p><p>Filter by Local Pack or Local Teaser to see if your site is featured. Keep your eye out for any results marked with a red circle, as these are being dominated by your competitors.</p><h4>The wonderful world of NAP</h4><p>As a local business owner, you'll probably have hours of operation, and maybe even one of those signs that you turn around to indicate whether you’re open or closed. You also have something that blogs and e-commerce sites <em>don’t</em> have: NAP, baby!</p><p>As a lingo learner, your lingo learning days are never over, especially in the world of digital marketing (actually, just make that digital anything). <strong>NAP is the acronym for business name, address, and phone number.</strong> In local SEO you’ll see this term float by more often than a crunchy brown leaf on a cold November morning.</p><p><strong>NAP details are your lifeblood:</strong> You want people to know them, you want them to be correct, and you want them to be correct everywhere — for the very simple reason that humans and Google will trust you if your data is consistent.</p><p>If you manage a single location and decide to go down the manual listing management route, kudos to you, my friend. I’m going to offer some resources to guide you:</p><ul><li><a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/local-business-listings" target="_blank">All About Local Listings and SEO</a></li><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/advanced-citation-audit-clean-up-achieve-consistent-data-higher-rankings" target="_blank">Advanced Local Citation Audit &amp; Clean Up: Achieve Consistent Data &amp; Higher Rankings</a></li><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/unfiltered-local-search-results" target="_blank">Unfiltered: How to Show Up in Local Search Results</a></li><li><a href="https://moz.com/blog/basic-local-competitive-audit" target="_blank">How to Perform a Basic Local Business Competitive Audit</a></li></ul><h3>3. You manage multiple local businesses with multiple locations</h3><p><em><strong>Quest:</strong> Bulk-distribute business NAP, fix consistency issues, and stamp out duplicates.</em></p><p>If you are juggling a bunch of locations for your own business, or a client’s, you’ll know that in the world of citation building things can get out of hand pretty gosh-darn quick. Any number of acts can result in your business listing details splitting into multiple fragments, whether you moved locations, inherited a phone number that has an online past, or someone in-house set up your listings incorrectly.</p><p>While a single business operating out of a single location may have the choice to manually manage their listing distribution, with every location you add to your list your task becomes exponentially more complex.</p><p>Remember earlier, when we talked about those all-important local search ranking factors? The factors that determine local results, like proximity, citation signals, reviews, and so on? Well, now you’ll be really glad you bookmarked that link.</p><p>You can do all sorts of things to send appealing local signals to Google. While there isn’t a great deal we can do about proximity right now — people have a tendency to travel where they want to — the foundational act of consistently distributing your NAP details is within your power.</p><p>That’s where Moz Local steps in. The main purpose of Moz Local is to help you publish and maintain NAP consistency in bulk.</p><p>First, <a href="https://moz.com/local/search" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Track the Right Keywords and Locations for Your Business - Next Level', 'Check Listing']);">enter your business name and postcode</a> in the free Check Listing tool. Bounce, bounce...</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f93505c8939.14951003.gif" /></p><p>After a few bounces, you’ll get the results:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f9350e01fa3.56847071.png" /></p><p>Moz Local will only manage listings that have been “verified” to prevent spam submissions.</p><p>If you’re not seeing what you’d expect in the Check Listing tool, you’ll want to dig up your Google Maps and Facebook Places pages and check them against these requirements on our <a href="https://moz.com/help/guides/local/listing" target="_blank">Help Hub</a>.</p><p>When you’re ready to start distributing your business details to our partners, you can select and purchase your listing. You can find out more about purchasing your listing, again on our <a href="https://moz.com/help/guides/local/listing" target="_blank">Help Hub</a>.</p><p><strong><em>Pro Tip:</em></strong> <em>If you have lots of local clients, you’ll probably want to purchase via CSV upload. Follow our <a href="https://moz.com/local/help/documentation" target="_blank">documentation</a> to get your CSV all spruced up and formatted correctly.</em></p><p>If tracking your visibility and reputation is high on your to-do list, then you’ll want to look at purchasing your listings at the Professional or Premium level.</p><p>We’ll track your local and organic rankings for your Google My Business categories by default, but you can enter your own group of target keywords here. We account for the geographic location of your listings, so be sure to add keywords without any geomodifiers!</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f93515d8293.71135637.png" /></p><p>If you want to track more keywords, we’ve got you covered. Hop on over to Moz Pro and set up a Campaign like we did in the section above.</p><h3>4. You’re a dog trainer who services your local area without a storefront</h3><p><em><strong>Quest:</strong> Help owners of aspiring good dogs find your awesome training skills, even though you don’t have a brick-and-mortar storefront.</em></p><p>At Moz HQ, we love our pooches: they are the sunshine of our lives (as our Instagram feed delightfully confirms). While they’re all good doggos, well-trained pooches have a special place in our hearts.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f9351db3054.09702858.png" /></p><p>But back to business. If you train dogs, or run another location-specific business <em>without</em> a shop front, <strong>this is called a service-area business</strong> (or <em>SAB</em>, another term to add to the new lingo pile).</p><p>Start by tracking searches for “dog trainer seattle,” and all the other keywords you discovered in your research, both nationally and locally.</p><p>I’ve got my Campaign pulled up, so I’m going to add some keywords and track them nationally and locally.</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f93529956d6.63318971.png" /></p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business/5a0f935308b966.83401900.png" /></p><p>You may find that some keywords on a national level are just too competitive for your local business. That’s okay! You can refine your list as you go. If you’re happy with your local tracking, then you can remove the nationally tracked keywords from your Campaign and just track your keywords at the local level.</p><p><strong><em>Pro Tip:</em></strong> <em>Remember that if you want to improve your Page Optimization with Moz Pro, you’ll have to have the keyword tracked nationally in your Campaign.</em></p><p>In terms of Moz Local, since accuracy, completeness, and consistency are key factors, the tool pushes your complete address to our partners in order to improve your search ranking. It's possible to use Moz Local with a service-area business (SAB), but it's worth noting that some partners do not support hidden addresses. Miriam Ellis describes <a href="https://moz.com/blog/sabs-decreased-local-search-visibility" target="_blank">how Moz Local works with service-area businesses</a> (SABs) in her recent blog post.</p><p>Basically, if your business is okay with your address being visible in multiple places, then we can work with your Facebook page, provided it’s showing your address. You won’t achieve a 100% visibility score, but chances are your direct local competitors are in the same boat.</p><hr /><h2>Wrapping up</h2><p>Whether you’re reaching every corner of the globe with your online presence, or putting cupcakes into the hands of Seattleites, the local SEO landscape has an impact on how your site is represented in search results.</p><p>The key is identifying the right opportunities for your business and delivering the most accurate and consistent information to search engines, directories, and your human visitors, too.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/D4jBcdfDrzY" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/how-to-track-keywords-locations-for-your-business<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-18332676560895736892017-11-17T15:07:00.001-08:002017-11-17T15:07:15.363-08:00How Google AdWords (PPC) Does and Doesn't Affect Organic Results - Whiteboard Friday<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/63/&quot;">randfish</a></p><p>It's common industry knowledge that PPC can have an effect on our organic results. But what effect is that, exactly, and how does it work? In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers the ways paid ads influence organic results — and one very important way it doesn't.</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/2tairi7nte?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%" id="wistia_embed"></iframe></p><script src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><p><a href="https://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-google-adwords-ppc-affects-organic-results/5a0e008e0f53b5.97844508.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="https://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-google-adwords-ppc-affects-organic-results/5a0e008e0f53b5.97844508.jpg" alt="How Google AdWords does and doesn't affect Organic Results" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></a></p><p class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!</p><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about AdWords and how PPC, paid search results can potentially impact organic results.<br />Now let's be really clear. As a rule...</p><h2>Paid DOES NOT DIRECTLY affect organic rankings</h2><p>So many of you have probably seen the conspiracy theories out there of, "Oh, we started spending a lot on Goolge AdWords, and then our organic results went up." Or, "Hey, we're spending a lot with Google, but our competitor is spending even more. That must be why they're ranking better in the organic results." None of that is true. So there's a bunch of protections in place. They have a real wall at Google between the paid side and the organic side. The organic folks, the engineers, the product managers, the program managers, all of the people who work on those organic ranking results on the Search Quality team, they absolutely will not let paid directly impact how they rank or whether they rank a site or page in the organic results.</p><h2>However:</h2>But there are a lot of indirect things that Google doesn't control entirely that cause paid and organic to have an intersection, and that's what I want to talk about today and make clear. <p><strong>A. Searchers who see an ad may be more likely to click and organic listing.</strong></p><p><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/1-80911.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Searchers who see an ad — and we've seen studies on this, including a notable one from Google years ago — may be more likely to click on an organic listing, or they may be more likely if they see a high ranking organic listing for the same ad to click that ad. For example, let's say I'm running Seattle Whale Tours, and I search for whale watching while I'm in town. I see an ad for Seattle Whale Tours, and then I see an organic result. It could be the case, let's say that my normal click-through rate, if there was only the ad, was one, and my normal click-through rate if I only saw the organic listing was one. Let's imagine this equation: 1 plus 1 is actually going to equal something like 2.2. It's going to be a little bit higher, because seeing these two together biases you, biases searchers to generally be more likely to click these than they otherwise would independent of one another. This is why many people will bid on their brand ads.<br /></p><p>Now, you might say, "Gosh, that's a really expensive way to go for 0.2 or even lower in some cases." I agree with you. I don't always endorse, and I know many SEOs and paid search folks who don't always endorse bidding on branded terms, but it can work.</p><p><strong>B. Searchers who've been previously exposed to a site/brand via ads may be more likely to click&gt;engage&gt;convert.</strong></p><p><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/2-67392.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Searchers who have been previously exposed to a particular brand through paid search may be more likely in the future to click and engage on the organic content. Remember, a higher click-through rate, a higher engagement rate can lead to a higher ranking. So if you see that many people have searched in the past, they've clicked on a paid ad, and then later in the organic results they see that same brand ranking, they might be more likely and more inclined to click it, more inclined to engage with it, more inclined actually to convert on that page, to click that Buy button generally because the brand association is stronger. If it's the first time you've ever heard of a new brand, a new company, a new website, you are less likely to click, less likely to engage, less likely to buy, which is why some paid exposure prior to organic exposure can be good, even for the organic exposure.</p><p><strong>C. Paid results do strongly impact organic click-through rate, especially in certain queries.</strong></p><p><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/3-100956.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Across the board, what we've seen is that paid searches on average, in all of Google, gets between 2% and 3% of all clicks, of all searches result in a paid click. Organic, it's something between about 47% and 57% of all searches result in an organic click. But remember there are many searches where there are no paid clicks, and there are many searches where paid gets a ton of traffic. If you haven't seen it yet, there was a blog post from Moz last week, from the folks at Wayfair, and they talked about <a href="https://moz.com/blog/google-organic-clicks-shifting-to-paid" target="_blank">how incredibly their SERP click-through rates have changed</a> because of the appearance of ads.</p><p>So, for example, I search for dining room table lighting, and you can see on your mobile or on desktop how Google has these rich image ads, and you can sort of select different ones. I want to see all lighting. I want to see black lighting. I want to see chrome lighting. Then there are ads below that, the normal paid text ads, and then way, way down here, there are the organic results.</p><p>So this is probably taking up between 25% and 50% of all the clicks to this page are going to the paid search results, biasing the click-through rate massively, which means if you bid in certain cases, you may find that you will actually change the click-through rate curve for the entire SERP and change that click-through rate opportunity for the keyword.</p><p><strong>D. Paid ad clicks may lead to increased links, mentions, coverage, sharing, etc. that can boost organic rankings.</strong></p><p><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/4-67487.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>So paid ad clicks may lead to other things. If someone clicks on a paid ad, they might get to that site, and then they might decide to link to it, to mention that brand somewhere else, to provide media coverage or social media coverage, to do sharing of some kind. All of those things can — some of them directly, some of them indirectly — boost rankings. So it is often the case that when you grow the engagement, the traffic of a website overall, especially if that website is providing a compelling experience that someone might want to write about, share, cover, or amplify in some way, that can boost the rankings, and we do see this sometimes, especially for queries that have a strong overlap in terms of their content, value, and usefulness, and they're not just purely commercial in intent.<br /></p><p><strong>E. Bidding on search queries can affect the boarder market around those searches by shifting searcher demand, incentivizing (or de-incentivizing) content creation, etc.</strong></p><p><img src="https://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/5-72558.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Last one, and this is a little subtler and more difficult to understand, but basically by bidding on paid search results, you sort of change the market. You affect the market for how people think about content creation there, for how they think about monetization, for how they think about the value of those queries.</p><p>A few years ago, there was no one bidding on and no one interested in the market around insurance discounts as they relate to fitness levels. Then a bunch of companies, insurance companies and fitness tracking companies and all these other folks started getting into this world, and then they started bidding on it, and they created sort of a value chain and a monetization method. Then you saw more competition. You saw more brands entering this space. You saw more affiliates entering. So the organic SERPs themselves became more competitive with the entry of paid, and this happens very often in markets that were under or unmonetized and then become more monetized through paid advertising, through products, through offerings.</p><p>So be careful. Sometimes when you start bidding in a space that previously no one was bidding in, no was buying paid ads in, you can invite a lot of new and interesting competition into the search results that can change the whole dynamic of how the search query space works in your sector.</p><p>All right, everyone, hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard Friday. I look forward to your thoughts in the comments, and we'll see you again next week for another edition. Take care.<br /></p><p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/" target="_blank">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/" target="_blank">Speechpad.com</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/TdWysm_hiWU" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/how-google-adwords-ppc-affects-organic-results<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-42506267407517750992017-11-16T20:26:00.001-08:002017-11-16T20:26:28.229-08:00Left is Right & Up is DownProbably the single best video to watch to understand the power of Google &amp; Facebook (or even most of the major problems across society) is this following video about pleasure versus happiness. In constantly seeking pleasure we forego happiness. The “feed” based central aggregation networks are just like slot machines in your pocket: variable reward circuitry which self-optimizes around exploiting your flaws to eat as much attention as possible. The above is not an accident. It is, rather, as intended: “That means that we needed to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever … It’s a social validation feedback loop … You’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology … [The inventors] understood this, consciously, and we did it anyway.” Happy? Good! Share posed photos to make your friends feel their lives are worse than your life is. Outraged? Good! Click an ad. Hopeless? Good. There is a product which can deliver you pleasure…if only you can…click an ad. The central network operators not only attempt to manipulate people at the emotional level, but the layout of the interface also sets default user patterns. Most users tend to focus their attention on the left side of the page: “if we were to slice a maximized page down the middle, 80% of the fixations fell on the left half of the screen (even more than our previous finding of 69%). The remaining 20% of fixations were on the right half of the screen.” This behavior is even more prevalent on search results pages: “On SERPs, almost all fixations (94%) fell on the left side of the page, and 60% those fixations can be isolated to the leftmost 400px.” On mobile, obviously, the attention is focused on what is above the fold. That which is below the fold sort of doesn’t even exist for a large subset of the population. Outside of a few central monopoly attention merchant players, the ad-based web is dying. Mashable has raised about $46 million in VC funding over the past 4 years. And they just sold for about $50 million. Breaking even is about as good as it gets in a web controlled by the Google / Facebook duopoly. :D Other hopeful unicorn media startups appear to have peaked as well. That BuzzFeed IPO is on hold: “Some BuzzFeed investors have become worried about the company’s performance and rising costs for expansions in areas like news and entertainment. Those frustrations were aired at a board meeting in recent weeks, in which directors took management to task, the people familiar with the situation said.” Google’s Chrome web browser will soon have an ad blocker baked into it. Of course the central networks opt out of applying this feature to themselves. Facebook makes serious coin by blocking ad blockers. Google pays Adblock Plus to unblock ads on Google.com &amp; boy are there a lot of ads there. Format your pages like Google does their search results and they will tell you it is a piss poor user experience &amp; a form of spam - whacking you with a penalty for it. Of course Google isn’t the only search engine doing this. Mix in ads with a double listing and sometimes there will only be 1 website listed above the fold. I’ve even seen some Bing search results where organic results have a “Web” label on them - which is conveniently larger than the ad label that is on ads. That is in addition to other tricks like… lots of ad extensions that push organics below the fold on anything with the slightest commercial intent bolding throughout ads (title, description, URL) with much lighter bolding of organics only showing 6 organic results on commercial searches that are likely to generate ad clicks As bad as either of the above looks in terms of ad load or result diversity on the desktop, it is only worse on mobile. On mobile devices organic search results can be so hard to find that people ask questions like “Are there any search engines where you don’t have to literally scroll to see a result that isn’t an advertisement?” The answer is yes. DuckDuckGo. But other than that, it is slim pickings. In an online ecosystem where virtually every innovation is copied or deemed spam, sustainable publishing only works if your business model is different than the central network operators. Not only is there the aggressive horizontal ad layer for anything with a hint of commercial intent, but now the scrape layer which was first applied to travel is being spread across other categories like ecommerce. Ecommerce retailers beware. There is now a GIANT knowledge panel result on mobile that takes up the entire top half of the SERP -&gt; Google updates mobile product knowledge panels to show even more info in one spot: https://t.co/3JMsMHuQmJ pic.twitter.com/5uD8zZiSrK— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 14, 2017 Here are 2 examples. And alarms are going off at Amazon now. Yes, Prime is killer, but organic search traffic is going to tank. Go ahead &amp; scroll down to the organic listings (if you dare).And if anyone clicks the module, they are taken away from the SERPs into G-Land. Wow. :) pic.twitter.com/SswOPj4iGd— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 14, 2017 The more of your content Google can scrape-n-displace in the search results the less reason there is to visit your website &amp; the more ad-heavy Google can make their interface because they shagged the content from your site. Simply look at the market caps of the big tech monopolies vs companies in adjacent markets. The aggregate trend is expressed in the stock price. And it is further expressed in the inability for the unicorn media companies to go public. As big as Snapchat &amp; Twitter are, nobody who invested in either IPO is sitting on a winner today. Google is outraged anyone might question the numbers &amp; if the current set up is reasonable: Mr Harris described as “factually incorrect” suggestions that Google was “stealing” ad revenue from publishers, saying that two thirds of the revenues generated by online content went to its originators. “I’ve heard lots of people say that Google and Facebook are “ruthlessly stealing” all the advertising revenue that publishers hoped to acquire through online editions,” he told the gathering. “There is no advertising on Google News. Zero. Indeed you will rarely see advertising around news cycles in Google Search either. Sure it is not the ad revenues they are stealing. Rather it is the content. Either by scraping, or by ranking proprietary formats (AMP) above other higher quality content which is not published using the proprietary format &amp; then later attaching crappier &amp; crappier deals to the (faux) “open source” proprietary content format. Google keeps extracting content from publishers &amp; eating the value chain. Some publishers have tried to offset this by putting more ads on their own site while also getting further distribution by adopting the proprietary AMP format. Those who realized AMP was garbage in terms of monetization viewed it as a way to offer teasers to drive users to their websites. The partial story approach is getting killed though. Either you give Google everything, or they want nothing. That is, after all, how monopolies negotiate - ultimatums. Those who don’t give Google their full content will soon receive manual action penalty notifications Important: Starting 2/1/18, Google is requiring that AMP urls be comparable to the canonical page content. If not, Google will direct users to the non-AMP urls. And the urls won’t be in the Top Stories carousel. Site owners will receive a manual action: https://t.co/ROhbI6TMVz pic.twitter.com/hb9FTluV0S— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 16, 2017 The value of news content is not zero. Being the go-to resource for those sorts of “no money here” news topics also enables Google to be the go-to resource for searches for [auto insurance quote] and other highly commercial search terms where Google might make $50 or $100 per click. Economics drive everything in publishing. But you have to see how one market position enables another. Google &amp; Facebook are not strong in China, so Toutiao - the top news app in China - is valued at about $20 billion. Now that Yahoo! has been acquired by Verizon, they’ve decided to shut down their news app. Unprofitable segments are worth more as a write off than as an ongoing concern. Look for Verizon to further take AIM at shutting down additional parts of AOL &amp; Yahoo. Firefox recently updated to make its underlying rendering engine faster &amp; more stable. As part of the upgrade they killed off many third party extensions, including ours. We plan to update them soon (a few days perhaps), but those who need the extensions working today may want to install something like (a href=“https://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php”&gt;Comodo Dragon (or another browser based on the prior Firefox core) &amp; install our extensions in that web browser. As another part of the most recent Firefox update, Firefox dumped Yahoo! Search for Google search as their default search engine in a new multiyear deal where financial terms were not disclosed. Yahoo! certainly deserved to lose that deal. First, they signed a contract with Mozilla containing a change-of-ownership poison pill where Mozilla would still make $375 million a year from them even if they dump Yahoo!. Given what Yahoo! sold for this amounts to about 10% of the company price for the next couple years. Second, Yahoo! overpaid for the Firefox distribution deal to where they had to make their user experience even more awful to try to get the numbers to back out. Here is a navigational search result on Yahoo! where the requested site only appears in the right rail knowledge graph. The “organic” result set has been removed. There’s a Yahoo! News insert, a Yahoo Local insert, an ad inviting you to download Firefox (bet that has since been removed!), other search suggestions, and then graphical ads to try to get you to find office furniture or other irrelevant stuff. Here is how awful those sorts of search results are: Yahoo! was so embarrassed at the lack of quality of their result set that they put their logo at the upper right edge of the page. So now they’ll be losing a million a day for a few years based on Marissa Mayer’s fantastic deal with Firefox. And search is just another vertical they made irrelevant. When they outsourced many verticals &amp; then finally shut down most of the remaining ones, they only left a few key ones: On our recent earnings call, Yahoo outlined out a plan to simplify our business and focus our effort on our four most successful content areas – News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle. To that end, today we will begin phasing out the following Digital Magazines: Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate. And for the key verticals they kept, they have pages like the following, which look like a diet version of eHow Every day they send users away to other sites with deeper content. And eventually people find one they like (like TheAthletic or Dunc’d On) &amp; then Yahoo! stops being a habit. Meanwhile many people get their broader general news from Facebook, Google shifted their search app to include news, Apple offers a great news app, the default new tab on Microsoft Edge browser lists a localize news feed. Any of those is a superior user experience to Yahoo!. It is hard to see what Yahoo!’s role is going forward. Other than the user email accounts (&amp; whatever legal liabilities are associated with the chronic user account hacking incidents), it is hard to see what Verizon bought in Yahoo!. Categories: yahoo from SEO Book http://www.seobook.com/left-right-down via IFTTT from Local SEO Guru http://localseoguru.tumblr.com/post/167569540723 via IFTTT<br />from Tumblr http://tomeucapella.tumblr.com/post/167571026790/left-is-right-up-is-down<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-10179873345394550052017-11-16T20:01:00.001-08:002017-11-16T20:01:37.369-08:00Left is Right & Up is DownProbably the single best video to watch to understand the power of Google &amp; Facebook (or even most of the major problems across society) is this following video about pleasure versus happiness. In constantly seeking pleasure we forego happiness. The “feed” based central aggregation networks are just like slot machines in your pocket: variable reward circuitry which self-optimizes around exploiting your flaws to eat as much attention as possible. The above is not an accident. It is, rather, as intended: “That means that we needed to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever … It’s a social validation feedback loop … You’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology … [The inventors] understood this, consciously, and we did it anyway.” Happy? Good! Share posed photos to make your friends feel their lives are worse than your life is. Outraged? Good! Click an ad. Hopeless? Good. There is a product which can deliver you pleasure…if only you can…click an ad. The central network operators not only attempt to manipulate people at the emotional level, but the layout of the interface also sets default user patterns. Most users tend to focus their attention on the left side of the page: “if we were to slice a maximized page down the middle, 80% of the fixations fell on the left half of the screen (even more than our previous finding of 69%). The remaining 20% of fixations were on the right half of the screen.” This behavior is even more prevalent on search results pages: “On SERPs, almost all fixations (94%) fell on the left side of the page, and 60% those fixations can be isolated to the leftmost 400px.” On mobile, obviously, the attention is focused on what is above the fold. That which is below the fold sort of doesn’t even exist for a large subset of the population. Outside of a few central monopoly attention merchant players, the ad-based web is dying. Mashable has raised about $46 million in VC funding over the past 4 years. And they just sold for about $50 million. Breaking even is about as good as it gets in a web controlled by the Google / Facebook duopoly. :D Other hopeful unicorn media startups appear to have peaked as well. That BuzzFeed IPO is on hold: “Some BuzzFeed investors have become worried about the company’s performance and rising costs for expansions in areas like news and entertainment. Those frustrations were aired at a board meeting in recent weeks, in which directors took management to task, the people familiar with the situation said.” Google’s Chrome web browser will soon have an ad blocker baked into it. Of course the central networks opt out of applying this feature to themselves. Facebook makes serious coin by blocking ad blockers. Google pays Adblock Plus to unblock ads on Google.com &amp; boy are there a lot of ads there. Format your pages like Google does their search results and they will tell you it is a piss poor user experience &amp; a form of spam - whacking you with a penalty for it. Of course Google isn’t the only search engine doing this. Mix in ads with a double listing and sometimes there will only be 1 website listed above the fold. I’ve even seen some Bing search results where organic results have a “Web” label on them - which is conveniently larger than the ad label that is on ads. That is in addition to other tricks like… lots of ad extensions that push organics below the fold on anything with the slightest commercial intent bolding throughout ads (title, description, URL) with much lighter bolding of organics only showing 6 organic results on commercial searches that are likely to generate ad clicks As bad as either of the above looks in terms of ad load or result diversity on the desktop, it is only worse on mobile. On mobile devices organic search results can be so hard to find that people ask questions like “Are there any search engines where you don’t have to literally scroll to see a result that isn’t an advertisement?” The answer is yes. DuckDuckGo. But other than that, it is slim pickings. In an online ecosystem where virtually every innovation is copied or deemed spam, sustainable publishing only works if your business model is different than the central network operators. Not only is there the aggressive horizontal ad layer for anything with a hint of commercial intent, but now the scrape layer which was first applied to travel is being spread across other categories like ecommerce. Ecommerce retailers beware. There is now a GIANT knowledge panel result on mobile that takes up the entire top half of the SERP -&gt; Google updates mobile product knowledge panels to show even more info in one spot: https://t.co/3JMsMHuQmJ pic.twitter.com/5uD8zZiSrK— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 14, 2017 Here are 2 examples. And alarms are going off at Amazon now. Yes, Prime is killer, but organic search traffic is going to tank. Go ahead &amp; scroll down to the organic listings (if you dare).And if anyone clicks the module, they are taken away from the SERPs into G-Land. Wow. :) pic.twitter.com/SswOPj4iGd— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 14, 2017 The more of your content Google can scrape-n-displace in the search results the less reason there is to visit your website &amp; the more ad-heavy Google can make their interface because they shagged the content from your site. Simply look at the market caps of the big tech monopolies vs companies in adjacent markets. The aggregate trend is expressed in the stock price. And it is further expressed in the inability for the unicorn media companies to go public. As big as Snapchat &amp; Twitter are, nobody who invested in either IPO is sitting on a winner today. Google is outraged anyone might question the numbers &amp; if the current set up is reasonable: Mr Harris described as “factually incorrect” suggestions that Google was “stealing” ad revenue from publishers, saying that two thirds of the revenues generated by online content went to its originators. “I’ve heard lots of people say that Google and Facebook are “ruthlessly stealing” all the advertising revenue that publishers hoped to acquire through online editions,” he told the gathering. “There is no advertising on Google News. Zero. Indeed you will rarely see advertising around news cycles in Google Search either. Sure it is not the ad revenues they are stealing. Rather it is the content. Either by scraping, or by ranking proprietary formats (AMP) above other higher quality content which is not published using the proprietary format &amp; then later attaching crappier &amp; crappier deals to the (faux) “open source” proprietary content format. Google keeps extracting content from publishers &amp; eating the value chain. Some publishers have tried to offset this by putting more ads on their own site while also getting further distribution by adopting the proprietary AMP format. Those who realized AMP was garbage in terms of monetization viewed it as a way to offer teasers to drive users to their websites. The partial story approach is getting killed though. Either you give Google everything, or they want nothing. That is, after all, how monopolies negotiate - ultimatums. Those who don’t give Google their full content will soon receive manual action penalty notifications Important: Starting 2/1/18, Google is requiring that AMP urls be comparable to the canonical page content. If not, Google will direct users to the non-AMP urls. And the urls won’t be in the Top Stories carousel. Site owners will receive a manual action: https://t.co/ROhbI6TMVz pic.twitter.com/hb9FTluV0S— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 16, 2017 The value of news content is not zero. Being the go-to resource for those sorts of “no money here” news topics also enables Google to be the go-to resource for searches for [auto insurance quote] and other highly commercial search terms where Google might make $50 or $100 per click. Economics drive everything in publishing. But you have to see how one market position enables another. Google &amp; Facebook are not strong in China, so Toutiao - the top news app in China - is valued at about $20 billion. Now that Yahoo! has been acquired by Verizon, they’ve decided to shut down their news app. Unprofitable segments are worth more as a write off than as an ongoing concern. Look for Verizon to further take AIM at shutting down additional parts of AOL &amp; Yahoo. Firefox recently updated to make its underlying rendering engine faster &amp; more stable. As part of the upgrade they killed off many third party extensions, including ours. We plan to update them soon (a few days perhaps), but those who need the extensions working today may want to install something like (a href=“https://www.comodo.com/home/browsers-toolbars/browser.php”&gt;Comodo Dragon (or another browser based on the prior Firefox core) &amp; install our extensions in that web browser. As another part of the most recent Firefox update, Firefox dumped Yahoo! Search for Google search as their default search engine in a new multiyear deal where financial terms were not disclosed. Yahoo! certainly deserved to lose that deal. First, they signed a contract with Mozilla containing a change-of-ownership poison pill where Mozilla would still make $375 million a year from them even if they dump Yahoo!. Given what Yahoo! sold for this amounts to about 10% of the company price for the next couple years. Second, Yahoo! overpaid for the Firefox distribution deal to where they had to make their user experience even more awful to try to get the numbers to back out. Here is a navigational search result on Yahoo! where the requested site only appears in the right rail knowledge graph. The “organic” result set has been removed. There’s a Yahoo! News insert, a Yahoo Local insert, an ad inviting you to download Firefox (bet that has since been removed!), other search suggestions, and then graphical ads to try to get you to find office furniture or other irrelevant stuff. Here is how awful those sorts of search results are: Yahoo! was so embarrassed at the lack of quality of their result set that they put their logo at the upper right edge of the page. So now they’ll be losing a million a day for a few years based on Marissa Mayer’s fantastic deal with Firefox. And search is just another vertical they made irrelevant. When they outsourced many verticals &amp; then finally shut down most of the remaining ones, they only left a few key ones: On our recent earnings call, Yahoo outlined out a plan to simplify our business and focus our effort on our four most successful content areas – News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle. To that end, today we will begin phasing out the following Digital Magazines: Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate. And for the key verticals they kept, they have pages like the following, which look like a diet version of eHow Every day they send users away to other sites with deeper content. And eventually people find one they like (like TheAthletic or Dunc’d On) &amp; then Yahoo! stops being a habit. Meanwhile many people get their broader general news from Facebook, Google shifted their search app to include news, Apple offers a great news app, the default new tab on Microsoft Edge browser lists a localize news feed. Any of those is a superior user experience to Yahoo!. It is hard to see what Yahoo!’s role is going forward. Other than the user email accounts (&amp; whatever legal liabilities are associated with the chronic user account hacking incidents), it is hard to see what Verizon bought in Yahoo!. Categories: yahoo from SEO Book http://www.seobook.com/left-right-down via IFTTT from Local SEO Guru http://localseoguru.tumblr.com/post/167569540723 via IFTTT<br />from Tumblr http://tomeucapella.tumblr.com/post/167571026790/left-is-right-up-is-down<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a><br /><br />from Network Coaching http://thenetworkcoaching.blogspot.com/2017/11/left-is-right-up-is-down.html<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-6138978268591052742017-11-16T15:07:00.001-08:002017-11-16T15:07:13.386-08:00How to Make Your Website More Secure (So Google Doesn't Punish You)<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/4295655/&quot;">lkolowich</a></p><p>Thanks to the buzz around website hacking and personal data theft in recent years, most Internet users are aware that their sensitive information is at risk every time they surf the web.<br /></p><p>And yet, although the personal data of their visitors and customers is at risk, many businesses still aren’t making website security a priority.</p><p>Enter Google.</p><p>The folks over at Google are known for paving the way for Internet behavior. Last month, they took a monumental step forward in helping protect people from getting their personal data hacked. The update they released to their popular Chrome browser <a href="https://searchengineland.com/google-emails-warnings-webmasters-chrome-will-mark-http-pages-forms-not-secure-280907" target="_blank">now warns users if a website is not secure</a> – right inside that user’s browser.</p><p>While this change is meant to help protect users’ personal data, it’s also a big kick in the pants for businesses to get moving on making their websites more secure.</p><h2>Google’s Chrome update: What you need to know</h2><p>On October 17, 2017, Google’s latest Chrome update (version 62) began flagging websites and webpages that contain a form but don’t have a basic security feature <a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-ssl" target="_blank">called SSL</a>. SSL, which stands for “Secure Sockets Layer,” is the standard technology that ensures all the data that passes between a web server and a browser – passwords, credit card information, and other personal data – stays private and ensures protection against hackers.</p><p>In Chrome, sites lacking SSL are now marked with the warning “Not Secure” in eye-catching red, right inside the URL bar:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure/5a0ce9be08a850.55106543.gif" alt="imdb-not-secure.gif" /></p><p>Google started doing this back in January 2017 for pages that asked for sensitive information, like credit cards. The update released in October expands the warning to all websites that have a form, even if it's just one field that asks for something like an email address.</p><h2>What’s the impact on businesses?</h2><p>Because Chrome has <a href="https://www.netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx?qprid=2&amp;qpcustomd=0" target="_blank">47% of market share</a>, this change is likely noticed by millions of people using Chrome. And get this: 82% of respondents to a recent consumer survey said they would leave a site that is not secure, <a href="https://research.hubspot.com/charts/ssl-matters" target="_blank">according to HubSpot Research</a>.</p><p>In other words, if your business’ website isn’t secured with SSL, then more than 8 out of 10 Chrome users said they would <em>leave your website.</em></p><p>Ouch.</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure/5a0ce9be7ae2a8.43525491.png" /></p><p>What’s more, Google <a href="http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2014/08/https-as-ranking-signal.html" target="_blank">has publically stated</a> that SSL is now a ranking signal in Google’s search algorithm. This means that a website with SSL enabled may outrank another site without SSL.</p><p>That’s exactly why anyone who owns or operates a website should start taking the steps to secure their website with an SSL certificate, in addition to a few other security measures. Businesses that don’t take care to protect visitors’ information might see significant issues, garner unwanted attention, and dilute customer trust.</p><p>“In my opinion, I think security is undervalued by a lot of marketers,” says Jeffrey Vocell, my colleague at HubSpot and go-to website guru. “Almost daily, we hear news about a new hacking incident or about personal data that has been compromised. The saying ‘there’s no such thing as bad press’ clearly isn’t true here; or, at the very least, the marketer that believes it has never had to live with the fallout of a data breach.”</p><p>With Google’s Chrome update, those visitors will see a warning right inside their browsers – even before they’ve entered any information. This means businesses face the potential of losing website visitors’ trust, regardless of whether a cybersecurity incident has actually occurred.</p><p>If you’re ready to join the movement toward a more secure web, the first step is to see whether your website currently has an SSL certificate.</p><h2>Do you know whether your site has SSL?</h2><p>There are a few ways to tell whether your website (or any website) has SSL.</p><h3>If you don’t use Google Chrome:</h3><p>All you have to do is look at a website’s URL once you’ve entered it into the URL bar. Does it contain “https://” with that added “s,” or does it contain “http://” without an “s”? Websites that have SSL contain that extra “s.” You can also <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/ssl-checker?utm_campaign=Google%20Chrome%20SSL%20Update&amp;utm_source=moz-ssl-article" target="_blank">enter any URL into this SSL Checker</a> from HubSpot and it’ll tell you whether it’s secure without having to actually visit that site.</p><h3>If you do have Chrome:</h3><p>It’s easy to see whether a website is secured with an SSL certificate, thanks to the recent update. After entering a URL into the URL bar, you’ll see the red “Not Secure” warning next to websites that aren’t certified with SSL:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure/5a0ce9bef1a2e0.22374282.png" alt="star-wars-not-secure.png" /></p><p>For websites that are certified with SSL, you’ll see “Secure” in green, alongside a padlock icon:</p><p><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure/5a0ce9bf59a667.09973425.png" alt="facebook-secure.png" /></p><p>You can click on the padlock to read more about the website and the company that provided the SSL certificate.</p><p>Using one of the methods above, go ahead and check to see if your business’ website is secure.</p><h3>Yes, it does have SSL! Woohoo!</h3><p>Your site visitors already feel better about browsing and entering sensitive information into your website. You’re not quite done, though – there’s still more you can do to make your website even more secure. We’ll get to that in a second.</p><h3>Shoot, it doesn’t have SSL yet.</h3><p>You’re not alone – even a few well-known sites, like IMDB and StarWars.com, weren't ready for Google's update. But it’s time to knock on your webmasters’ doors and have them follow the steps outlined below.</p><h2>How to make your website more secure</h2><p>Ready to protect your visitors from data theft and get rid of that big, red warning signal staring every Chrome user in the face in the process? Below, you’ll find instructions and resources to help you secure your website and reduce the chances of getting hacked.</p><h3>Securing your site with SSL</h3><p>The first step is to <a href="https://moz.com/blog/traditional-vs-lets-encrypt-vs-cloudflare" target="_blank">determine which type of certificate you need</a> – and how many. You might need different SSL certificates if you host content on multiple platforms, such as separate domains or subdomains.</p><p>As for cost, an SSL certificate will cost you anywhere from nothing (Let’s Encrypt offers free SSL certificates) to a few hundred dollars per month. It usually averages around $50 per month per domain. Some CMS providers (like HubSpot) have SSL included, so check with them before making any moves.</p><p>(<a href="https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-ssl">Read this post</a> for more detailed instructions and considerations for SSL.)</p><h3>Securing your site with additional measures</h3><p>Even if you already have SSL, there are four other things you can do to make your website significantly more secure, according to Vocell.</p><h4>1) Update any plugins or extensions/apps you use on your site.</h4><p>Hackers look for security vulnerabilities in old versions of plugins, so it’s better to take on the challenges of keeping your plugins updated than make yourself an easy target.</p><h4>2) Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network).</h4><p>One trick hackers use to take down websites is through a DDoS attack. A DDoS attack is when a hacker floods your server with traffic until it stops responding altogether, at which point the hacker can gain access to sensitive data stored in your CMS. A CDN will detect traffic increases and scale up to handle it, preventing a DDoS attack from debilitating your site.</p><h4>3) Make sure your CDN has data centers in multiple locations.</h4><p>That way, if something goes awry with one server, your website won’t stop working all of a sudden, leaving it vulnerable to attack.</p><h4>4) Use a password manager.</h4><p>One simple way of protecting against cyberattacks is by using a password manager – or, at the very least, using a secure password. A secure password contains upper and lowercase letters, special characters, and numbers.</p><p>Suffering a hack is a frustrating experience for users and businesses alike. I hope this article inspires you to double down on your website security. With SSL and the other security measures outlined in this post, you’ll help protect your visitors and your business, and make visitors feel safe browsing and entering information on your site.</p><p>Does your website <a href="https://www.hubspot.com/ssl-checker?utm_campaign=Google%20Chrome%20SSL%20Update&amp;utm_source=moz-ssl-article" target="_blank">have SSL enabled</a>? What tips do you have for making your website more secure? Tell us about your experiences and ideas <a href="https://moz.com/blog/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure#comments" target="_blank">in the comments</a>.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/dttiZMOMFvg" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/how-to-make-your-website-more-secure<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-35073891799653199012017-11-15T14:57:00.001-08:002017-11-15T14:57:40.067-08:00How to Build the Right Content Marketing Strategy for SEO Growth<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/11052701/&quot;">AlliBerry3</a></p><p>Delivering content that best serves the needs of users is certainly top-of-mind for many SEOs since the <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-hummingbird" target="_blank">Hummingbird</a> algorithm update and subsequent buzz around <a href="https://moz.com/learn/seo/google-rankbrain" target="_blank">RankBrain</a>. It sounds easy enough in theory, but what does that actually mean in practice? Many SEOs believe that they're already doing this by driving their content strategy by virtue of keyword research alone.</p><p>The problem with solely using keywords to drive your content strategy is that <strong>not all of your audience’s content needs are captured in search.</strong> Ask your nearest customer service representative what questions they answer every day; I can guarantee that you won’t find all of those questions with search volume in a keyword research tool.</p><p>Keyword research can also tempt you to develop content that your brand really shouldn’t be creating because you don’t have anything unique to say about it. Sure, you could end up increasing organic traffic, but are those going to be converting customers?</p><p>Moving away from a keyword-first-driven content strategy and into an audience-centric one will put you in a better place for creating SEO content that converts. Don’t get me wrong — there's still an important place for keyword research. But it belongs later in the process, after you've performed a deep dive into your audience and your own brand expertise.</p><p>This is an approach that the best content marketers excel at. And it’s something that SEOs can utilize, too, as they strive to provide more relevant and higher-quality content for your target audiences.</p><hr /><h2>How is an audience-focused content strategy different from a keyword-focused content strategy?</h2><p>A content marketing strategy starts with the target audience and dives deeper into understanding your brand’s expertise and unique value proposition. Keyword research is great at uncovering how people talk about topics relevant to your brand, but it is limiting when it comes to audience understanding.</p><p>Think about one of your prospective customer’s journey to conversion. Is search the only channel they utilize to get information? If you are collecting lead information or serving up remarketing ads, hopefully not. So, why should your audience understanding be limited to keyword research?</p><p>A content strategy is a holistic plan that tackles questions like:</p><ul><li>Who is my audience?</li><li>What are their pain points and needs?</li><li>What types of content do these people want to consume?</li><li>Where are they currently having conversations (online or offline)</li><li>What unique expertise does our brand offer?</li><li>How can we match our expertise to our audience’s needs?</li></ul><hr /><h2>Finding your unique content angle</h2><p>The key to connecting with your audience is to develop your unique content angle that finds intersections between what your brand’s expertise is in and your audience’s pain points. The Content Marketing Institute refers to this as a "<a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/content-inc/framework-content-tilt/">content tilt</a>" because it involves taking a larger topic and tilting it in your own way. Defining your brand’s expertise can be more difficult than it appears on the surface.</p><p>It isn’t uncommon for brands to say their product is what makes them unique, but if there is a competitor out there with the same general product, it’s not unique. What makes your <em>organization</em> different from competitors?</p><h3>Here's an example</h3><p>When I worked for <a href="https://www.kaplanfinancial.com" target="_blank">Kaplan Financial Education</a>, a professional licensing and exam prep provider brand under Kaplan Professional, finding our tilt was a real challenge. Kaplan Financial Education has a lot of product lines all within financial services, but the audience for each is different. We needed a tilt that worked for the entire <a href="https://www.kaplanfinancial.com/resources" target="_blank">Career Corner</a> content hub we were creating. What we realized is that our core audience all has a big pain point in common: entering the financial services industry either through insurance or securities (selling stocks and bonds) has low barriers to entry and high turnover. Everyone entering that job market needs to know how to not only pass their licensing exam(s), but also be successful as professionals too, both in the early years and also in the years to come.</p><p>Kaplan Financial Education’s biggest content competitors create very factual content — they're websites like Investopedia, Wikipedia, and governing bodies like FINRA and state government departments. But Kaplan Financial Education has something going for it that its competitors do not: a huge network of students. There are other licensing exam prep providers that compete with Kaplan Financial Education, but none that cover the same breadth of exams and continuing education. It's the only brand in that industry that provides licensing education as individuals progress through their financial careers. "From hire to retire," as the marketers say.</p><p>We made our content tone more conversational and solicited input from our huge student and instructor network to help new professionals be more successful. We also used their quotes and insights to drive content creation and make it more relatable and personalized. All of our content tied back to helping financial professionals be successful — either as they're getting licensed or beyond — and rather than simply telling people what to do, we leveraged content to allow our current students and instructors to teach our prospective students.</p><h3>You may be thinking... so I can only write content that fits in this tilt? Isn’t that limiting?</h3><p>As SEOs, it can be really hard to let go of some keyword opportunities that exist if they don’t fit the content strategy. And it’s true that there are probably some keywords out there you could create content for and increase your organic traffic. But if they don’t fit with your target audience’s needs and your brand’s expertise, will it be the kind of traffic that's going to convert? Likely not. Certainly not enough to spend resources on content creation and to distract yourself from your larger strategy objective.</p><hr /><h2>How to build your content strategy</h2><h3>1. Set your goals.</h3><p>Start at the end. What is you are ultimately trying to accomplish? Do you want to increase leads by a certain percentage? Do you want to drive a certain number increase in sales? Are you trying to drive subscribers to a newsletter? Document these goals first. This will help you figure out what type of content you want to create and what the calls-to-action should be.</p><p>If you're a business like Kaplan and leads are your ultimate goal, a proven strategy is to create ungated content that provides good insights, but leaves room for a deeper dive. Have your calls-to-action point to a gated piece of content requiring some form of contact information that goes into more depth.</p><p>A business like a car dealership is going to have a primary goal of getting people into their dealership to buy a car. Their content doesn’t necessarily need to be gated, but it should have a local spin and speak to common questions people have about the car buying process, as well as show the human elements that make the dealership unique to establish trust and show how customers will be treated. Trust is especially important in that industry because they have to combat the used car salesman stereotype.</p><h3>2. Identify your primary audience and their pain points.</h3><p>The next step is to identify who you're targeting with your content. There are a lot of people at your disposal to help you with this part of the process. Within your organization, consider talking to these teams:</p><ul><li>Customer Service</li><li>Sales</li><li>Technical Support</li><li>Product Management</li><li>Product Marketing</li><li>Social Media Marketing</li></ul><p>These are often the people who interact the most with customers. Find out what your audience is struggling with and what content could be created to help answer their questions. You can also do some of this research on your own by searching forums and social media. Subreddits within Reddit related to your topic can be a goldmine. Other times there are active, related groups on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. If you’ve ever been to the MozCon Facebook group, you know how much content could be created answering common questions people have related to SEO.</p><h3>3. Determine your brand’s unique expertise.</h3><p>Again, dig deeper and figure out what makes your brand truly unique. It likely isn’t the product itself. Think about who your subject matter experts are and how they contribute to the organization. Think about how your products are developed.</p><p>Even expertise that may seem boring on the surface can be extremely valuable. I’ve seen <a href="https://www.thesaleslion.com/" target="_blank">Marcus Sheridan</a> speak a couple of times and he has one of the most compelling success stories I’ve ever heard about not being afraid to get too niche with expertise. He had a struggling swimming pool installation business until he started blogging. He knew his expertise was in pools — buying fiberglass pools, specifically. He answered every question he could think of related to that buying process and became the world thought leader on fiberglass pools. Is it a glamorous topic? No. But, it’s helpful to the exact audience he wanted to reach. There aren’t hundreds of thousands of people searching for fiberglass pool information online, but the ones that are searching are the ones he wanted to capture. And he did.</p><h3>4. Figure out your content tilt.</h3><p>Now put your answers for #2 and #3 together and figure out what your unique content angle will look like.</p><h3>5. Develop a list of potential content topics based on your content tilt.</h3><p>It’s time to brainstorm topics. Now that you know your content tilt, it’s a lot easier to come up with topics your brand should be creating content about. Plus, they’re topics you know your audience cares about! This is a good step to get other people involved from around your organization, from departments like sales, product management, and customer service. Just make sure your content tilt is clear to them prior to the brainstorm to ensure you don’t get off-course.</p><h3>6. Conduct keyword research.</h3><p>Now that you’ve got a list of good content topics, it’s time to really dive into long-tail keyword research and figure out the best keyword targets around the topics.</p><p>There are plenty of good tools out there to help you with this. Here are a few of my go-tos:</p><ul><li><a href="https://moz.com/explorer" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Build the Right Content Marketing Strategy for SEO Growth', 'KWE']);">Moz Keyword Explorer</a> (freemium): If you have it, it’s a great tool for uncovering keywords as questions, looking at the keyword competitive landscape, and finding other related keywords to your topic.</li><li><a href="https://keywordtool.io/" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Build the Right Content Marketing Strategy for SEO Growth', 'KWIO']);">Keywordtool.io</a> (free): One of the only keyword discovery tools out there that will give you keyword research by search engine. If you are looking for YouTube or App Store keywords, for instance, this is a great idea generation tool.</li><li><a href="https://ubersuggest.io/" target="_blank" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Build the Right Content Marketing Strategy for SEO Growth', 'UberSuggest']);">Ubersuggest.io</a> (free): Type in one keyword and Ubersuggest will give you a plethora of other ideas organized in a list alphabetically or in a word cloud.</li></ul><h3>7. Create an editorial calendar.</h3><p>Based on your keyword research findings, develop an editorial calendar for your content. Make sure to include what your keyword target(s) are so if you have someone else developing the content, they know what is important to include in it.</p><p>Here are a couple resources to check out for getting started:</p><ul><li>HubSpot’s <a href="https://offers.hubspot.com/editorial-calendar-templates" target="_blank">free editorial calendar templates</a> (Google Sheet or Excel)</li><li>Content Marketing Institute’s <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FtmTItkUjUFXMB6vhwSaATQo1AoC3yZwqooOQ4UZWHM/edit#gid=0" target="_blank">free editorial calendar template</a> (Google Sheet)</li></ul><h3>8. Determine how to measure success.</h3><p>Once you know what content you're going to create, you’ll need to figure out how you'll measure success. Continuing on with the Kaplan example, lead generation was our focus. So, we focused our efforts on measuring leads to our gated content and conversions of those leads to sales over a certain time period. We also measured organic entrances to our ungated content. If our organic entrances were growing (or not growing) disproportionate to our leads, then we’d take deeper dives into what individual pieces of content were converting well and what pieces were not, then make tweaks accordingly.</p><h3>9. Create content!</h3><p>Now that all the pieces are there, it’s time to do the creation work. This is the fun part! With your content tilt in mind and your keyword research completed, gather the information or research you need and outline what you want the content to look like.</p><p>Take this straightforward article called <a href="https://www.kaplanfinancial.com/resources/securities/how-to-get-your-series-7-license/" target="_blank">How to Get Your Series 7 License</a> as an example. To become a registered representative (stockbroker), you have to pass this exam. The primary keyword target here is: Series 7 license. It’s an incredibly competitive keyword with between 2.9K–4.3K monthly searches, according to the Keyword Explorer tool. Other important semantically related keywords include: how to get the Series 7 license, Series 7 license requirements, Series 7 Exam, General Securities Registered Representative license, and Series 7 license pass rate.</p><p>Based on our content tilt and competitive landscape for the primary keyword, it made the most sense to make this into a how-to article explaining the process in non-jargon terms to someone just starting in the industry. We perfectly exact-match each keyword target, but the topics are covered well enough for us to rank on the front page for all but one of them. Plus, we won the Google Answer Box for "how to get your Series 7 license." We also positioned ourselves well for anticipated future searches around a new licensing component called the SIE exam and how it’ll change the licensing process.</p><hr /><p>Once you've created your content and launched it, like with any SEO work, you will have a lag before you see any results. Be sure to build a report or dashboard based on your content goals so you can keep track of the performance of your content on a regular basis. If you find that the growth isn’t there after several months, it is a good idea to go back through the content strategy and assess whether you’ve got your tilt right. Borrowing from <a href="http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/02/killing-content-marketing-ignoring/" target="_blank">Joe Pulizzi</a>, ask yourself: "What if our content disappeared? Would it leave a gap in the marketplace?" If the answer is no, then it’s definitely time to revisit your tilt. It’s the toughest piece to get right, but once you do, the results will follow.</p><p>If you're interested in more discussion on content marketing and SEO, check out the newest MozPod podcast. Episode 8, SEO &amp; Content Strategy:</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://mozpod.libsyn.com/seo-and-content-strategy" target="_blank" class="button-primary large-cta orange" onclick="_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'blog', 'How to Build the Right Content Marketing Strategy for SEO Growth', 'MozPod']);">Listen to the podcast</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/-FrEUvaVBcY" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/build-content-marketing-strategy<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-28515779035467001942017-11-14T15:59:00.001-08:002017-11-14T15:59:05.884-08:00Rewriting the Beginner's Guide to SEO<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/514135/&quot;">BritneyMuller</a></p><script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.9.1/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script><script type="text/javascript">//<![CDATA[ (function($) { // code using $ as alias to jQuery $(function() { // Hide the hypotext content. $('.hypotext-content').hide(); // When a hypotext link is clicked. $('a.hypotext.closed').click(function (e) { // custom handling here e.preventDefault(); // Create the class reference from the rel value. var id = '.' + $(this).attr('rel'); // If the content is hidden, show it now. if ( $(id).css('display') == 'none' ) { $(id).show('slow'); if (jQuery.ui) { // UI loaded $(id).effect("highlight", {}, 1000); } } // If the content is shown, hide it now. else { $(id).hide('slow'); } }); // If we have a hash value in the url. if (window.location.hash) { // If the anchor is within a hypotext block, expand it, by clicking the // relevant link. console.log(window.location.hash); var anchor = $(window.location.hash); var hypotextLink = $('#' + anchor.parents('.hypotext-content').attr('rel')); console.log(hypotextLink); hypotextLink.click(); // Wait until the content has expanded before jumping to anchor. //$.delay(1000); setTimeout(function(){ scrollToAnchor(window.location.hash); }, 1000); } }); function scrollToAnchor(id) { var anchor = $(id); $('html,body').animate({scrollTop: anchor.offset().top},'slow'); } })(jQuery); //]]></script><p>Many of you reading likely cut your teeth on Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO. Since it was launched, it's easily been our top-performing piece of content:</p><p class="full-width"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/rewriting-beginners-guide-to-seo-outline/5a0b36e67fdf86.84168470.jpg" /></p><p class="caption"><em>Most months see 100k+ views (the reverse plateau in 2013 is when we changed domains).</em></p><p>While Moz’s Beginner's Guide to SEO still gets well over 100k views a month, the current guide itself is fairly outdated. This big update has been on my personal to-do list since I started at Moz, and we need to get it right because — let’s get real — you all deserve a bad-ass SEO 101 resource!</p><p>However, updating the guide is no easy feat. Thankfully, I have the help of my fellow Mozzers. Our content team has been a collective voice of reason, wisdom, and organization throughout this process and has kept this train on its tracks.</p><p>Despite the effort we've put into this already, it felt like something was missing: your input! We're writing this guide to be a go-to resource for all of you (and everyone who follows in your footsteps), and want to make sure that we're including everything that today's SEOs need to know. You all have a better sense of that than anyone else.</p><h3>So, in order to deliver the best possible update, I'm seeking your help.</h3><p>This is <a href="https://moz.com/blog/rewriting-the-beginners-guide-the-outline">similar to the way Rand did it back in 2007.</a> And upon re-reading your <em>many</em> "more examples" requests, we’ve continued to integrate more examples throughout.</p><p>The plan:</p><ul><li>Over the next 6–8 weeks, I’ll be updating sections of the Beginner's Guide and posting them, one by one, on the blog.</li><li>I'll solicit feedback from you incredible people and implement top suggestions.</li><li>The guide will be reformatted/redesigned, and I'll 301 all of the blog entries that will be created over the next few weeks to the final version.</li><li>It's going to remain 100% free to everyone — no registration required, no premium membership necessary.</li></ul><h2>To kick things off, here’s the revised outline for the Beginner’s Guide to SEO:</h2><p>Click each chapter's description to expand the section for more detail.</p><h3>Chapter 1: SEO 101</h3><h4><a href="#" id="1" class="hypotext closed" rel="1">What is it, and why is it important? ↓<br /></a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 1" rel="1" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="1"></a><ul><li>What is SEO?</li><li>Why invest in SEO?</li><li>Do I really need SEO?</li><li>Should I hire an SEO professional, consultant, or agency?</li></ul><h4>Search engine basics:</h4><ul><li>Google Webmaster Guidelines basic principles</li><li>Bing Webmaster Guidelines basic principles</li><li>Guidelines for representing your business on Google</li></ul><h4>Fulfilling user intent</h4><h4>Know your SEO goals</h4></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 2: Crawlers &amp; Indexing</h3><h4><a href="#" id="2" class="hypotext closed" rel="2">First, you need to show up. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 2" rel="2" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="2"></a><h4>How do search engines work?</h4><ul><li>Crawling &amp; indexing</li><li>Determining relevance</li><li>Links</li><li>Personalization</li></ul><h4>How search engines make an index</h4><ul><li>Googlebot</li><li>Indexable content</li><li>Crawlable link structure</li><li>Links</li><li>Alt text</li><li>Types of media that Google crawls</li><li>Local business listings</li></ul><h4>Common crawling and indexing problems</h4><ul><li>Online forms</li><li>Blocking crawlers</li><li>Search forms</li><li>Duplicate content</li><li>Non-text content</li></ul><h4>Tools to ensure proper crawl &amp; indexing</h4><ul><li>Google Search Console</li><li>Moz Pro Site Crawl</li><li>Screaming Frog</li><li>Deep Crawl</li></ul><h4>How search engines order results</h4><ul><li>200+ ranking factors</li><li>RankBrain</li><li>Inbound links</li><li>On-page content: Fulfilling a searcher’s query</li><li>PageRank</li><li>Domain Authority</li><li>Structured markup: Schema</li><li>Engagement</li><li>Domain, subdomain, &amp; page-level signals</li><li>Content relevance</li><li>Searcher proximity</li><li>Reviews</li><li>Business citation spread and consistency</li></ul><h4>SERP features</h4><ul><li>Rich snippets</li><li>Paid results</li><li>Universal results <ul><li>Featured snippets</li><li>People Also Ask boxes</li></ul></li><li>Knowledge Graph</li><li>Local Pack</li><li>Carousels</li></ul></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 3: Keyword Research</h3><h4><a href="#" id="3" class="hypotext closed" rel="3">Next, know what to say and how to say it. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 3" rel="3" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="3"></a><h4>How to judge the value of a keyword</h4><h4>The search demand curve</h4><ul><li>Fat head</li><li>Chunky middle</li><li>Long tail</li></ul><h4>Four types of searches:</h4><ul><li>Transactional queries</li><li>Informational queries</li><li>Navigational queries</li><li>Commercial investigation</li></ul><h4>Fulfilling user intent</h4><h4>Keyword research tools:</h4><ul><li>Google Keyword Planner</li><li>Moz Keyword Explorer</li><li>Google Trends</li><li>AnswerThePublic</li><li>SpyFu</li><li>SEMRush</li></ul><h4>Keyword difficulty</h4><h4>Keyword abuse</h4><h4>Content strategy {link to the Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing}</h4></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 4: On-Page SEO</h3><h4><a href="#" id="4" class="hypotext closed" rel="4">Next, structure your message to resonate and get it published. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 4" rel="4" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="4"></a><h4>Keyword usage and targeting</h4><h4>Keyword stuffing</h4><h4>Page titles:</h4><ul><li>Unique to each page</li><li>Accurate</li><li>Be mindful of length</li><li>Naturally include keywords</li><li>Include branding</li></ul><h4>Meta data/Head section:</h4><ul><li>Meta title</li><li>Meta description</li><li>Meta keywords tag <ul><li>No longer a ranking signal</li></ul></li><li>Meta robots</li></ul><h4>Meta descriptions:</h4><ul><li>Unique to each page</li><li>Accurate</li><li>Compelling</li><li>Naturally include keywords</li></ul><h4>Heading tags:</h4><ul><li>Subtitles</li><li>Summary</li><li>Accurate</li><li>Use in order</li></ul><h4>Call-to-action (CTA)</h4><ul><li>Clear CTAs on all primary pages</li><li>Help guide visitors through your conversion funnels</li></ul><h4>Image optimization</h4><ul><li>Compress file size</li><li>File names</li><li>Alt attribute</li><li>Image titles</li><li>Captioning</li><li>Avoid text in an image</li></ul><h4>Video optimization</h4><ul><li>Transcription</li><li>Thumbnail</li><li>Length</li><li>"~3mo to YouTube" method</li></ul><h4>Anchor text</h4><ul><li>Descriptive</li><li>Succinct</li><li>Helps readers</li></ul><h4>URL best practices</h4><ul><li>Shorter is better</li><li>Unique and accurate</li><li>Naturally include keywords</li><li>Go static</li><li>Use hyphens</li><li>Avoid unsafe characters</li></ul><h4>Structured data</h4><ul><li>Microdata</li><li>RFDa</li><li>JSON-LD</li><li>Schema</li><li>Social markup <ul><li>Twitter Cards markup</li><li>Facebook Open Graph tags</li><li>Pinterest Rich Pins</li></ul></li></ul><h4>Structured data types</h4><ul><li>Breadcrumbs</li><li>Reviews</li><li>Events</li><li>Business information</li><li>People</li><li>Mobile apps</li><li>Recipes</li><li>Media content</li><li>Contact data</li><li>Email markup</li></ul><h4>Mobile usability</h4><ul><li>Beyond responsive design</li><li>Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP)</li><li>Progressive Web Apps (PWAs)</li><li>Google mobile-friendly test</li><li>Bing mobile-friendly test</li></ul><h4>Local SEO</h4><ul><li>Business citations</li><li>Entity authority</li><li>Local relevance</li></ul><h4>Complete NAP on primary pages</h4><h4>Low-value pages</h4></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 5: Technical SEO</h3><h4><a href="#" id="5" class="hypotext closed" rel="5">Next, translate your site into Google's language. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 5" rel="5" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="5"></a><h4>Internal linking</h4><ul><li>Link positioning</li><li>Anchor links</li></ul><h4>Common search engine protocols</h4><ul><li>Sitemaps <ul><li>Mobile</li><li>News</li><li>Image</li><li>Video</li></ul></li><li>XML</li><li>RSS</li><li>TXT</li></ul><h4>Robots</h4><ul><li>Robots.txt <ul><li>Disallow</li><li>Sitemap</li><li>Crawl Delay</li></ul></li><li>X-robots</li><li>Meta robots <ul><li>Index/noindex</li><li>Follow/nofollow</li></ul></li><li>Noimageindex</li><li>None</li><li>Noarchive</li><li>Nocache</li><li>No archive</li><li>No snippet</li><li>Noodp/noydir</li><li>Log file analysis</li><li>Site speed</li><li>HTTP/2</li><li>Crawl errors</li></ul><h4>Duplicate content</h4><ul><li>Canonicalization</li><li>Pagination</li></ul><h4>What is the DOM?</h4><ul><li>Critical rendering path</li><li>Help robots find the most important code first</li></ul><h4>Hreflang/Targeting multiple languages</h4><h4>Chrome DevTools</h4><h4>Technical site audit checklist</h4></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 6: Establishing Authority</h3><h4><a href="#" id="6" class="hypotext closed" rel="6">Finally, turn up the volume. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 6" rel="6" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="6"></a><h4>Link signals</h4><ul><li>Global popularity</li><li>Local/topic-specific popularity</li><li>Freshness</li><li>Social sharing</li><li>Anchor text</li><li>Trustworthiness <ul><li>Trust Rank</li></ul></li><li>Number of links on a page</li><li>Domain Authority</li><li>Page Authority</li><li>MozRank</li></ul><h4>Competitive backlinks</h4><ul><li>Backlink analysis</li></ul><h4>The power of social sharing</h4><ul><li>Tapping into influencers</li><li>Expanding your reach</li></ul><h4>Types of link building</h4><ul><li>Natural link building</li><li>Manual link building</li><li>Self-created</li></ul><h4>Six popular link building strategies</h4><ol><li>Create content that inspires sharing and natural links</li><li>Ego-bait influencers</li><li>Broken link building</li><li>Refurbish valuable content on external platforms</li><li>Get your customers/partners to link to you</li><li>Local community involvement</li></ol><h4>Manipulative link building</h4><ul><li>Reciprocal link exchanges</li><li>Link schemes</li><li>Paid links</li><li>Low-quality directory links</li><li>Tiered link building</li><li>Negative SEO</li><li>Disavow</li></ul><h4>Reviews</h4><ul><li>Establishing trust</li><li>Asking for reviews</li><li>Managing reviews</li><li>Avoiding spam practices</li></ul></div><hr /><h3>Chapter 7: Measuring and Tracking SEO</h3><h4><a href="#" id="7" class="hypotext closed" rel="7">Pivot based on what's working. ↓</a></h4><div class="hypotext-content 7" rel="7" style="display: none;"><a href="#" class="hypotext closed close" rel="7"></a><h4>KPIs</h4><ul><li>Conversions</li><li>Event goals</li><li>Signups</li><li>Engagement</li><li>GMB Insights: <ul><li>Click-to-call</li><li>Click-for-directions</li></ul></li><li>Beacons</li></ul><h4>Which pages have the highest exit percentage? Why?</h4><h4>Which referrals are sending you the most qualified traffic?</h4><h4>Pivot!</h4><h4>Search engine tools:</h4><ul><li>Google Search Console</li><li>Bing Webmaster Tools</li><li>GMB Insights</li></ul></div><hr /><h3>Appendix A: Glossary of Terms</h3><h3>Appendix B: List of Additional Resources</h3><h3>Appendix C: Contributors &amp; Credits</h3><hr /><p>What did you struggle with most when you were first learning about SEO? What would you have benefited from understanding from the get-go?</p><p>Are we missing anything? Any section you wish <em>wouldn't</em> be included in the updated Beginner's Guide? <a href="https://moz.com/blog/rewriting-beginners-guide-to-seo-outline#comments">Leave your suggestions in the comments!</a></p><p>Thanks in advance for contributing.</p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/ZS0_AI-rLns" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/rewriting-beginners-guide-to-seo-outline<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51270660778702843.post-44768226878019788602017-11-10T11:28:00.001-08:002017-11-10T11:28:02.956-08:00How Google Gives Us insight into Searcher Intent Through the Results - Whiteboard Friday<p>Posted by <a href="/&quot;https://moz.com/community/users/63/&quot;">randfish</a></p><p>When Google isn't quite sure what a searcher means just by their search query, the results (appropriately) cater to multiple possible meanings. Those SERPs, if we examine them carefully, are full of useful information. In this episode of Whiteboard Friday, Rand offers some real-world examples of what we can glean just by skimming the kinds of things Google decides are relevant.</p><p class="wistia_responsive_padding" style="padding:5.25% 0 28px 0;position:relative;"><iframe src="https://fast.wistia.net/embed/iframe/y6gyoo1ezs?videoFoam=true" title="Wistia video player" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="wistia_embed" name="wistia_embed" allowfullscreen="" mozallowfullscreen="" webkitallowfullscreen="" oallowfullscreen="" msallowfullscreen="" width="100%" height="100%"></iframe></p><script rel="display: none;" src="https://fast.wistia.net/assets/external/E-v1.js" async="" type="text/javascript"></script><p style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://d2v4zi8pl64nxt.cloudfront.net/how-google-gives-us-insight-into-searcher-intent-through-the-results-whiteboard-friday/5a034351d7dd80.96504681.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p style="text-align: center;" class="caption">Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab!<br /></p><h2><br /></h2><h2>Video Transcription</h2><p>Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're going to chat about how Google is giving us insight through their search results, their suggested searches, and their related searches into the intent that searchers have when they perform their query and how if we're smart enough and we look closely and study well, we can actually get SEO and content opportunities out of this analysis.<br /><br />So the way I thought I'd run this Whiteboard Friday is a little bit different than usual. Rather than being purely prescriptive, I thought I'd try and illustrate some actual results. I've pared them down a bit and removed the descriptions and taken some out, but to try and show the process of that.</p><p><br /></p><h2>Query 1: Damaged furniture</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/1-125666.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>So here's a query for damaged furniture. If I am trying to reach searchers for this query — let's assume that I'm in the furniture business — I might see here that there are some ads up at the top, like this one from Wayfair, inexpensive furniture up to 70% off. I scroll through the organic results — Everyday Clearance Furniture Outlet, MyBobs.com, okay, that's a local place here in Seattle, Seattle Furniture Repairs and Touchups. Okay, this is interesting. This is a different type of result, or it's serving a different searcher intent. This is, "We will repair your furniture," not, "We will sell you cheap, damaged furniture," which these two are. Then How Stuff Works, which is saying, "We will show you how to repair wooden furniture."</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/4-68522.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Now I scroll down even further and I get to the related searches — scratch and dent furniture near me, which suggests one of the intents absolutely behind this query is what Wayfair and My Bob's are serving, which is cheap furniture, inexpensive furniture that's been previously damaged in some way. Clearance Furniture Outlet, similar intent, Bob's Discount Furniture Pit, I'm not totally sure about the pit naming convention, and then there are some queries that are similar to these other ones.<br /><br />So here's what's happening. When you see search results like this, what you should pay close attention to is the <strong>intent to position ratio</strong>. Let's say...</p><p><strong>Intent A: I want to buy furniture</strong></p><p><strong>Intent B: I am looking to touch up or repair my furniture</strong></p><p><strong>Intent C: Show me how to do it myself</strong></p><p>If you see more A's ranking near the top, not in the advertising results, because those don't need a very high click-through rate in order to exist. They can be at 1% or 2% and still do fine here. But if you see these higher up here, that is an indication that a higher percent of Google searchers are preferring or looking for this A intent stuff. You can apply this to any search that you look at.</p><p>Thus, if you are doing SEO or creating content to try and target a query, but the content you're creating or the purpose you're trying to serve is in the lower ranked stuff, you might be trapped in a world where you can't rise any higher. Position four, maybe position three is the best you're going to do because Google is always going to be serving the different intent, the intent that more of the searchers for this query are seeking out.<br /><br />What's also nice about this is if you perform this and you see a single intent being served throughout and a single intent in the related searches, you can guess that it's probably going to be very difficult to change the searcher intent or to serve an entirely different searcher intent with that same query. You might need to look at different ones.</p><h2><br /></h2><h2>Query 2: E-commerce site design</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/2-168712.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>All right. Next up, e-commerce site design. So an ad up here, again, from Shopify. This one is "Our e-commerce solution just works." They're trying to sell something. I'm going to go with they're trying to sell you e-commerce site design.<br /></p><p><strong>Intent A: They are trying to sell you ecommerce design<br /></strong></p><p><strong>Intent B: I am looking for successful e-commerce design inspiration/ideas</strong><br /></p><p>30 Beautiful and Creative E-commerce Website Designs, this is also from Shopify, because they just took my advice, well, okay, obviously they took my advice long before this Whiteboard Friday. But they're ranking with exactly what we talked about in intent B, which was essentially, "Hey, I am looking for inspiration. I'm looking for ideas. I'm trying to figure out what my e-commerce website should look like or what designs are successful." You can see that again — intent B. So what's ranking higher here? It's not the serve the purchase intent. It's serve the examples intent.</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/5-72884.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>When we get to related searches, you see that again, e-commerce website examples, top e-commerce websites, best e-commerce sites 2016, these are all intent B. If you're trying to serve intent A, you better advertise, because ranking in the top results here is just not going to happen. That's not what searchers are seeking. It's going to be very, very tough.<br /><br /><strong>Slight side note:</strong></p><p>Whenever you see this, this late in the year, we're in October right now as we're filming this Whiteboard Friday. I did this search today, and I saw Best E-commerce Sites 2016 still in here. That suggests to me that there were a lot more people searching for it last year than there are this year. You will see there's like the same thing for 2017 down below, but it's lower in the related searches. It doesn't have as much volume. Again, that suggests to me it's on a downward trend. You can double-check that in Google trends, but good to pay attention to. Okay, side note over.</p><p><br /></p><h2>Query 3: Halloween laboratory props</h2><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/3-240102.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" /></p><p>Let's move on to our last example here, Halloween laboratory props. So Halloween is coming up. Lots and lots of people looking for laboratory props and props and costumes and decorations of all kinds. There's a huge business around this, especially in the United States and emerging in the United Kingdom and Australia and other places.</p><p>So, up at the top, Google is showing us ads. They are showing us the shopping ads, shop for Halloween laboratory props, and they've got some chemistry sets and a Frankenstein-style light switch that you can buy and some radioactive props and that kind of thing from Target, Etsy, and Oriental Trading Company.<br /><br />Then they show images, which is not surprising. But hot tip, if you see images ranking in the top of the organic results, you should absolutely be doing image SEO. This is a clear indication that a lot of the searchers want images. That means Google Images is probably getting a significant portion of the search volume. When I see this up here, my guess is always it's going to be 20% plus of searchers are going to the image results rather than the organic search results, and ranking here is often way easier than ranking here.<br /><br />More interesting things happening next. This result is from Pinterest, "Best 25 Mad Scientist Lab Ideas on Pinterest," "913 Best Laboratory, Frankenstein, Haunt Ideas Images on Pinterest," "DIY Mad Scientist Lab Prop on Pinterest." By the way, there's a video segment in here, which is all YouTube. This happens quite a bit when there is heavy, heavy visual content. You essentially see the domain crowding single-domain domination of search results. What does that mean? Don't do SEO on your site, or fine, do it on your site, but also do it on Pinterest and also do it on YouTube.<br /><br />If you're creating content like these guys are over here, BigCommerce and Shopify created these great pieces for beautiful ecommerce designs, they've put together a ton of images, wonderful. You can apply that same strategy for this. But then what should you do? Go to Pinterest, upload all those images, create a board, try and get your images shared, do some Pinterest SEO essentially. Do the same thing on YouTube. Have a bunch of examples in a short video that shows all the stuff that you're creating and then upload that to YouTube. Preferably have a channel. Preferably have a few videos so that you can potentially rank multiple times in here, because you know that many people are going here. This is pretty far down. So this is probably less than 10% of searchers make it here, but still a ton of opportunity. Very different type of search intent than what we saw in these previous two.</p><p><img src="http://d1avok0lzls2w.cloudfront.net/uploads/blog/6-65815.jpg" style="box-shadow: 0 0 10px 0 #999; border-radius: 20px;" />Look at the related searches — homemade mad scientist lab props, mad scientist props DIY, do it yourself, how to make mad scientist props. These intents are, generally speaking, not being served by any of these results yet. If you scroll far enough in the YouTube videos here, there's actually one video that is a how-to, but most of these are just showing stuff off. That to me is a content opportunity. You could make your Pinterest board potentially using some of these, DIY homemade, how to make, make that your Pinterest board, and probably, I'm going to guess that you will have a very good chance of pushing these other Pinterest results out of here and dominating those.<br /><br /><strong>So a few takeaways</strong>, just some short ones before we end here.</p><ol><li>In the SEO world, don't target content without first understanding the searcher. We can be very misled by just looking at keywords. If we look at the search results first, we can get inside the searcher's head a little bit. Hopefully, we can have some real conversations with those folks too.</li><li>Second, Google SERPs, search suggest, related searches, they can all help with problem number one.</li><li>Three, gaps in serving intent can yield ranking opportunity, like we showed in a few of these examples.</li><li>Finally, don't be afraid to disrupt your own business or your own content or your own selfish interest in order to serve searchers. In the long term, it will be better for you.</li></ol><p>You can see that exemplified here by Shopify saying, "We're going to show off a bunch of beautiful ecommerce designs even though some of them are not from Shopify." BigCommerce did the same thing. Even though some of them are not using BigCommerce's platform, they basically are willing to sacrifice some of that in order to serve searchers and build their brand, because they know if they don't, somebody else clearly will.</p>All right, everyone. Hope you've enjoyed this edition of Whiteboard Friday. I would love to hear your examples in the comments about how you've done search intent interpretation through looking at search results. We'll see you again next week. Take care. <p><a href="http://www.speechpad.com/page/video-transcription/">Video transcription</a> by <a href="http://www.speechpad.com/">Speechpad.com</a></p><br /><p><a href="https://moz.com/moztop10">Sign up for The Moz Top 10</a>, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!</p><img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/MozBlog/~4/5bZeGuBFRgE" height="1" width="1" alt="" /><br /><br />from Moz Blog https://moz.com/blog/how-google-gives-us-insight-into-searcher-intent-through-the-results-whiteboard-friday<br />via <a href="https://ifttt.com/?ref=da&amp;site=blogger">IFTTT</a>Victor Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17926067955378629376noreply@blogger.com0